Peter agrees and since his car is under repair he asks his lover (and, coincidentally, Chip’s law partner) Annie to drive him to the Babikian home. They are greeted by Nick who acts pretty much as Chip had described him over the phone. He leads them to the kitchen, and, over coffee, explains that he has just returned after taking his mother who has Alzheimer’s to an assisted living facility. When questioned about his wife, Lisa, Nick replies, “Oh, my God, she’s dead. He killed her.” He then leads them to the swimming pool, when his wife’s body is floating in blood- tinged water.

The alarms go off in the attorneys’ heads. This is a crime scene. They call the police, but Chip, sensing trouble for Nick, insists that Peter immediately do a psychological evaluation of the stricken man. Nick is the obvious suspect, and his state of mind will play an important part in a possible trial.

As time progresses, much of the work that Peter is doing on the case dredges up memories of his own wife’s tragic death some years before. He begins to believe that Nick is sane, but paranoid, and sees many of Nick’s symptoms appearing in his own behavior.

To appreciate this novel the reader must have an avid interest in, and accept the validity of, psychological evaluation. The methods that Peter employs in his evaluation of Nick are basic psychological ones. There is nothing “forensic” about them. There is nothing revolutionary or unique in his approach, nothing to grab the reader’s attention because of its cleverness. The plot proceeds predictably on a straight course with little in the way of surprises. Those that are skeptical of the social sciences will be tempted to put this one down after a few chapters and their judgment would not be in error.

Peter presents uncanny abilities in an extremely stressful situation. In practically hand to hand combat with an assailant, he can reason and notice details about his environment, germane to the case, in an extraordinary manner. The average person would predictably be thinking about trying to stay alive. This is especially striking since he is portrayed as a man still distraught over his own wife’s gruesome death.

The main characters in the book are well educated (They all have some post graduate training), and purportedly, considering their area of expertise, have an excellent command of the English language. Yet in one of the final scenes, Annie utters the following: “You think he’s the one who disappeared Gratzenberg?” Come on now, disappeared someone? I don’t think so. He might have caused the man to disappear, or was responsible for his disappearance. The author is taking generous liberties with correct word usage, something totally incongruous, considering the educational background of the speaker.

In summary, Delusion was one of my favorite recently read books. Perhaps I am getting less tolerant of the discipline of psychology in my old age, but evaluations in this book are made on the basis of little concrete evidence. In addition, the main protagonist is labeled as a forensic psychologist, and I didn’t notice anything in his actions that one could class as forensic.

--Andy Plonka