Review by Brian Lowen on show 22nd April
New York psychoanalyst Dr Frederick (Ricky) Starks has led a quiet, and so he believes, blameless life, until he receives the following letter, when his world is thrown into chaos-
Happy fifty-third birthday, Doctor. Welcome to the first day of your death. You ruined my life and now I fully intend to ruin yours.
Suddenly he is thrown into a dizzying battle of wits designed by a man who calls himself Rumplestiltskin.
The rules: within two weeks Ricky Starks must guess his tormentor’s identity and the source of his fury. If he succeeds he gets his life back, but if he fails, Rumplestiltskin will one by one destroy fifty-two of Dr Starks’ loved ones – friends, relatives, children – unless the good Doctor agrees to kill himself.
And so Ricky starts the long hunt through his records trying to work out who he has harmed so much to be seeking such terrible revenge. His money is systematically stolen from his bank accounts, his reputation is gradually destroyed and his office is ruined.
As the days tick by his carefully constructed life is stripped from him.
He is given clues which lead him to a woman he treated in his younger days, but who committed suicide shortly afterwards. Rumplestiltskin blames Ricky for the lack of care which led to her death.
Unable to locate his tormentor, he decides the only thing he can do is to fake his own death which he does in a quite dramatic way.
The second half of the book is Ricky’s slow and laborious fight back from near oblivion to locate his tormentor, until finally he can seek his own revenge.
A very well woven, and thrilling story that holds your attention until the last page.
I can thoroughly recommend it.
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