Therapy: A Psychological Thriller. Sebastian Fitzek

I really enjoyed this book, i couldn't stop riding

I read lots of mystery books, and lately I find them to be interesting, but quite similar. The book Therapy written by German writer Sebastian Fitzek is so different that I was immediately caught up in his story and his characters. Just when you think that you have the story figured out, he throws you a curve, you can't possibly put this book down. I will look for more books written by him.

In Sebastian Fitzek's "Therapy," forty-seven year old Dr. Viktor Larenz is "an eminent psychiatrist with a successful clinic in central Berlin" who "is the author of numerous books and was once a regular guest on radio and TV." He has a wife, Isabell, and an eleven-year old daughter, Josy, whom he adores. Sadly, Larenz experiences a mental breakdown and is admitted to a facility for treatment. What precipitated his emotional collapse? It seems that his little girl had been ill for almost a year, with symptoms that her doctors could not trace to any obvious cause. Josy starts out with vomiting and diarrhea and later suffers from seizures, infections, and nosebleeds. Then, something even more dreadful occurs. Josy vanishes, and her father is beside himself with grief. "Therapy" veers from the present to the past and then back to the present, as Larenz's therapist, Dr. Roth, attempts to unlock the secrets of his patient's disordered psyche. Viktor recounts his stay in his family's island cottage four years after his child's disappearance. One day, an intruder enters his house. She is a mysterious woman named Anna Glass, who may have important information about Josy's fate. Although he no longer practices medicine, Larenz agrees to treat Anna, hoping that they can bring one another the closure that they desperately seek. Sally-Ann Spencer skillfully translates this tale of obsession and self-delusion from the original German. Fitzek plays with us, allowing us glimpses of the truth and then throwing us off the scent. The canny reader will probably guess what is going on long before the book's denouement, but there are some surprising developments that few will foresee. Larenz is a tragic yet sympathetic hero. We identify with his pain and torment, even as we dread finding out the reason for his bizarre behavior. When Viktor decides to face reality, he suspects that doing so will cost him the little sanity that he still possesses. "Therapy" is a bit too gimmicky to work as a literary thriller, but it is a mesmerizing and fast-paced novel that effectively explores the most twisted recesses of the human mind.

Suffering from several unexplained illnesses, twelve year old Josy Larenz vanishes while visiting her twenty-second medical expert Dr. Grohlke. No one saw her disappear and no evidence as to what happened surfaces. As the case turns cold, Josy's father psychologist Viktor Larenz searches the most minute clue that could lead him to the whereabouts of his daughter as he remains hopeful, but would even settle on the closure of her corpse. His obsession destroys his marriage to Isabel whom he admires for her inner fortitude that he now knows he lacks and costs him his TV show. For all his efforts, he fails to find one iota of a trace of Josy. Four years later, Viktor intellectually knows he remains in the denial stage of grief, but cannot move on as psychologically he is still devastated. He has fled society choosing to live as a hermit on an isolated North Sea island. Anna Glass arrives to talk to him. She claims to be a writer of nonfiction whose characters come alive; though no longer practicing psychology, Viktor believes the beautiful stranger suffers from schizophrenia. However he becomes intrigued when Anna discusses her characterization of a preadolescent girl suffering from an unidentified illness before vanishing. She knows she needs help and Viktor grudgingly agrees to provide therapy even as he wonders who Anna Glass truly is and is she the first clue to finding Josy. This is a deep psychological thriller as the two prime characters are emotionally unbalanced and the third key player is the missing girl. Readers will sympathize with Viktor and empathize with his ex wife though she has limited appearances. Anna is an enigma as the audience wonders whether she is a crazy person, a con artist, or a killer. Fans will be hooked by the translation of Sebastian Fitzek's powerful character driven tale with a fabulous climax. Harriet Klausner