Robert A. Burton

As one of San Francisco's most prominent psychologists, Dr. Alan Forester sees the darkest, most dangerous realms of human desire--and the line between his patients and himself is as thin as the one between fantasy and reality. Now, one of his patients is dead, and someone is playing mind games with the doctor--mind games that can kill.

Booklist December 15, 1994
Talk about an eye for an eye! Burton has created a lively mystery that will delight those who believe a criminal should suffer a fitting penalty. Psychiatrist Alan Forester is into light S&M, but his mental disengagement enables him to keep from acknowledging his penchant's implications until almost the last minute. San Francisco provides a fertile field for Forester's dealings. First is Kate Carbone, who winds up on the beach at the bottom of a cliff, an obvious suicide, except that her husband is not convinced. Then Kelly Caldwell gets a firmer answer to her personal ad than she had expected. Next, Mistress Diana becomes all tied up with lavender scarves. Bonnie Ringold is the last one, but by then detective Bobby Lockhart and reporter Michelle Draper are on the trail with strong suspicions if little hard evidence, and Forester tries to put the blame on his disagreeable physician-patient, Jim Allen, and seems successful at first. Burton believably develops the changing attitudes and realizations of his characters, especially Kate's husband and Forester.
Copyright© 1994, William Beatty American Library Association. All rights reserved

Ingram March 1994
Learning that one of his colleagues has crossed a professional boundary with a patient, prominent psychologist Alan Forester is further dismayed when a patient of his own turns up dead in a series of sadomasochistic murders.