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Dr Morgan Snow finds herself doing a juggling act, which (as near as I can tell) she ought to be used to. She's a single mom, with a 13-year-old aspiring actress of a daughter. The divorce was one of those oh-so-civilized affairs that one reads a lot about but has never actually seen such a thing happening in real life. Dr Snow is a sex therapist at the noted Butterfield Institute, where her boss is also her surrogate mother. No problems there? Not yet. A woman comes to Dr Snow, seeking to set up a group therapy arrangement. The women in the group all belong to the Scarlet Society, which seems to be roughly the equivalent of the Playboy Club, only with lots of actual sex going on. It's a little more complex than that, but Dr Snow can explain the psychological issues present. The problem is this: the boy-toys are disappearing. Pictures of their naked bodies are being sent to a reporter at the New York Times but the bodies are not being found, the murder site(s) are not being found, and because the society is a secret society, there is no way for these women to grieve appropriately. Their families don't know about the society, even within the society the women don't socialize outside the group. Very odd. The police are going nuts over this case. One of the cops assigned to the case is Noah Jourdain. He and Dr Snow have history. She's very scared of the feelings Jourdain arouses in her, and not just the sexual feelings, of which there are plenty. He's nervous, too, but he's willing to keep trying. In the meantime, pictures keep showing up at the NYT. Each corpse has a number written on its feet. By the time number four is missing, lots of people are very scared. Is one of the society women killing the men? Is one of the men who serves the society killing other men? Is it someone only tangentially connected to the society? Rose knows how to ratchet up the suspense. Dr Snow has a lot going on in her life, and any one situation would be enough to give one a bad case of anxiety. Rose just keeps adding stressors, all of which are likely events given the premises Rose sets up at the beginning of THE DELILAH COMPLEX. It's just not the kind of week or month that one would wish on a dear friend. Sometimes I would like Dr Snow to be a little less afraid of her own emotions, but it's not truly out of character. Dr Snow is a complex character, as are most of the non-peripheral characters. Rose writes lovingly of New York City, without denying the meaner streets and less-than-stellar inhabitants. I certainly didn't see the denouement coming, although all the clues are there for the reader who really pays attention. THE DELILAH COMPLEX is the second in what looks to be (so far) a three book series, although there is certainly lots of room for Dr Snow to grow, and plenty of options for more books. I certainly won't complain if another Dr Snow story comes my way.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, June 2006
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