COMPULSION

by Michael Stewart

A beautiful young woman, wearing nothing but a silk night-robe, leaps to her death in New York's East River. Her body is never found, and its macabre mutilation goes unrecorded. She is identified from the night-robe as Cristina Parigi, a model working for a high-class Madison Avenue salon owned by wealthy and well-connected Joanna Lefever.Joanna and her English husband Stephen, a behavioral psychologist specializing in decoding body language, seem to have everything. But the tragic death of their infant son two years before has scarred their lives, and the memory of this, and the guilt at their own hand in it, is gradually driving them apart. Stephen takes to affairs with his young students, while Joanna tries to lose herself in her work. In the suffocating August heat the pressures build to exploding point.One sultry evening, Joanna attends a reception. She becomes conscious of a man's gaze, a greedy, voracious gaze, burning her with its intensity. The same eyes lure as she leaves, drawing her inexorably into a darkened limousine and an act of passionate, reckless abandon that confounds her very sense of self. When asked her name, she gives Cristina's. It's easy, and dangerously liberating. Soon she finds a pretext to visit the dead model's vacant apartment, where she tries on her clothes, reads her mail and lets herself imagine she is Cristina.Thus begins a shadowy, sensual game of afternoon delights and erotic dangers that grows into an overpowering obsession, driving Joanna ever deeper into the persona of Cristina and the bizarre designs of Louis, her artist lover. Ultimately it is up to Stephen, using all his psychologist's skills, to attempt to break the spell of her compulsion. But there may not be time to save Joanna from the real Cristina's terrifying fate...

325 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Born in June, 1945.

Reviews

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really interesting. I guess I don't read that many books or watch films because the story really surprised me. Even though I predicted correctly some important "mysteries" I could hardly fathom what was happening in the last few chapters. The novel is full of action, mostly psychological but there are some physical fights and breath seizing scenes. Dialogues were fast and witty, some descriptive paragraphs were boring though. Throughout the whole book I felt like I could actually see the events unfold in front of me and after I finished reading I was left with a million thoughts and emotions.

[Ashley Strand · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was so dumb. I picked it up from a free book bin and was intrigued by the title and cover photo. I figured I was guaranteed a guilty pleasure read. It was meh. The ending was predictable, the main female character was lame, and the husband was, well, a cad. Here's the thing that got me the most: the husband is a drunken, lazy, philandering cad who gets thrown out by the wife. In all his reflections, he just has himself a pity party about how his wife is so different from the woman he married. Later, he swoops in to save her *spoiler of sorts* and makes himself into a hero. There is no apology, no regret, no contrition for his past acts. No thanks. Don't bother with this silliness.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely twisted.