Book Review: The Delilah Complex

Reviewed By: Ali Karim - RAM

The Delilah Complex     Amazon US PB Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada PB
M. J. Rose
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Romance   Woman Main Character   Psychological Suspense
Series: Butterfield Institute # 2
[Mira Books UK £6.99]

I am so glad that MIRA Books have picked up M J Rose in the UK, as this second adventure [the first being the startling Halo Complex] featuring her sex therapist Dr Morgan Snow is exceptional. Why? Because it features a sharp contrast between the dark deeds seeded in the fractured lives of her clients with that of Snow's own personal life. The Delilah Complex takes its title from a series of disappearances of powerful men, who have been abducted and photographed naked with a lock of their hair shorn off, with death- mask photographs [which are mailed to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Betsy Young of the New York Times]. The number 1 is painted on the foot of the first victim Philip Maur [a powerful Wall Street CEO], and soon a second, then a third victim arrives via a photograph, lock of hair and the numbers on the feet which read 2, then 3, so Detective Noah Jordain [one time lover of Morgan Snow] realises that a serial killer has come to New York, and one that prays on the most powerful of men.

Snow becomes involved in the case when it turns out that the men were all concubines of a cabal of high-powered women who form a secret sexual club called the Scarlet Society. This group use men to fulfil their darkest sexual fantasies under a cloak of secrecy, while the men allow themselves the pleasure of being dominated and stripped of their strength, [when in their real lives, due to their power find themselves at the opposite end of the control circle].

Rose's writing is fresh and deeply involving as the case snakes through the complex lives of those who participate in the clandestine orgies organised by the Scarlet Society while all the while Snow tries to keep her own life in some form of control. Her daughter Dulcie is pursuing the path of Snow's own mother, a starlet who faded away under a haze of drink and drugs when her own dreams failed to materialise under the glow of neon and grease paint. Snow's own romantic liaison with Jordain is also in the balance as the case takes its toll on the sex therapist and her colleagues at the Butterfield Institute..

This is a tremendous book filled with pathos, insight and a look at the fringes of society and what lurks behind our basest motivations; but most of all it is a very engaging and captivating read, despite it being filled monsters masked in the flesh of humanity. If you've not placed M J Rose on your shelf yet, it's time you tried because her work is very powerful, and then I challenge you to tell me I'm wrong especially when you get to the last chapter of this tremendous novel.

Ali Karim - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ali Karim - RAM