Seduction

Naomi Brun is a librarian assistant in Communications and Community
Development at the Hamilton Public Library and a book reviewer for the
Hamilton Spectator.

Catherine Gildiner is an expert in the field of psychology. For her
doctoral thesis, she studied the influence of Darwin on Freud, and has
since opened a private practice in Toronto and published widely.
Seduction, quite appropriately a psychological thriller, is her first
novel.

Anders Konzak, director of the Freud Academy, is about to drop a bomb
that will destroy the validity of psychology in the eyes of the general
public. The psychological community is understandably agitated, and
wants desperately to find out what Konzak has in store so they can
prepare a legitimate defence of their field.

Kate Fitzgerald holds a doctorate in the philosophy of science, is a
world-renowned expert on Freud, and is also a convicted killer. Her
repeated attempts to gain early parole have been denied until now. If
she can work with Jackie Lawton, a violent ex-convict, to discover what
Konzak has planned, her prison psychologist will recommend that she be
set free.

Predictably, Konzak is murdered fairly early in the novel, and both
Fitzgerald and Lawton fear they might be falsely implicated in the
crime. In order to prove their innocence, they decide to solve the
murder themselves.

Part intellectual thriller and part hard-boiled detective story,
Seduction bears the hallmarks of both types of writing. Gildiner
incorporates an in-depth knowledge of psychological and historical
analyses into her plot, but presents these sophisticated ideas using the
plain language of Raymond Chandler or Mickey Spillane. The contrast
works, perhaps partially due to the very different natures of her two
protagonists, one a highly educated woman, the other a self-made man.

Seduction will find a wide readership. It is well-written, historically
accurate, and intellectually complex, yet its clear, simple style means
that many readers will find it accessible.