Reviewed by: Keith Nixon
Genre: Mystery
Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words
Availability
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Author:
Donna White
Glaser is a psychotherapist and lives in northwestern Wisconsin with her
husband. The Enemy We Know is the
first in the series of the Letty Whittaker Mysteries.
You can
learn more about the author via her website.
Description:
Letty
Whittaker, a psychotherapist, is threatened in her office by a drunk, deranged
patient, Wayne, who is angry with Letty for trying to persuade his girlfriend
to get out of their abusive relationship. Wayne then subjects Letty to
increasing and varied harassment as he blames her for the predicaments in his
personal life.
Letty,
however, has a secret herself. She is a reforming alcoholic and she struggles
to keep this from her employers whilst undergoing the twelve-step programme.
She’s also in a strange, unrequited relationship with her boyfriend Robert, a
reforming alcoholic himself.
Then Wayne
ends up dead and Letty is immediately a suspect. However, the harassment
continues unabated and Letty has to work out who’s really after her.
Appraisal:
I enjoyed
this story. It is very well written, well plotted, and the characters vivid and
imaginative. Letty herself is one damaged and conflicted lady, she had a
challenging life even before Wayne showed up - an alcoholic with suggestions of
a difficult upbringing, she can only bring herself to sleep with men when she’s
drunk. She has a boyfriend she’s not close to and finds herself attracted to
her boss.
It took a
few chapters to really draw me in (despite the immediate tension created by
Wayne’s attack) in part because there are a large number of characters to get
to know and the alcohol reform programme and AA meetings are heavily
illustrated. Some trimming of the detail here would have picked up the pace of
the plot, I feel.
On the
other hand the tension created by Glaser’s description of Wayne’s ratcheting up
of the harassment, offset by the lack of belief in her story by the police and
her employer was very well done, stirring ‘that’s not fair’ emotions within me.
Wayne and Robert’s murders were good twists although it did reduce the number
of potential suspects and the guilty party was not a total surprise, but
nevertheless the conclusion was well written with a lot of stress and more
difficulties for Letty – I feel sorry for her.
FYI:
Nothing of
relevance.
Format/Typo Issues:
None.
Rating: **** Four stars
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