Madeline is the daughter of a Cuban mother who is a princess of Santeria. Her mother is institutionalized for paranoid schizophrenia, but her prophecies still have an unerring degree of accuracy. Her father Neville is known to be the Hemingway of the canvas, which Madeline manages to contrast nicely, when as an artist she chooses to paint ants. It is hard to miss what appear to be deliberate reactions to her parent's careers.

Madeline takes on a new patient, Rachel Locklear, who is conflicted about her relationship with Anton, allegedly the most handsome of men from the Ukraine and also, surpassed only by his brother Uri as the cruelest of men. A physically abusive man, when money was needed Anton pimped Rachel out, notwithstanding the fact that she is the mother of his child Sasha. Rachel claims to be trying to escape from him, having fled from London to Bath. Rachel understands that when Anton finds her she will want to go back with him, but she also knows this will destroy any chance for Sasha to have a normal life. She wants Madeline to help her "get over him."

These conflicts form the basis of the novel, which moves at an uneven pace through various styles of writing, with the utilization of tools such as flashbacks which include Cuban ritualistic practices and devices. There are various other themes which are meant to be subplots but often do not come to fruition, and have the effect of slowing the novel down.

The female characters are far better developed than the males, but this is essential since the author seems to be trying to justify the inability of these women to act with purpose and decisiveness rather than succumbing to their fears and passions.

This novel is pitched as a thriller, but know that it is not until the last third of the book that the author stops wandering among her subthemes and focuses on bringing the story to conclusion. Perhaps by deleting some of the extraneous themes and issues the story would become focused and much stronger.

--Thea Davis