First published 2005
Dr. Tom Sutherland takes an extended vacation in London, where he meets Nordhagen, an enigmatic surgeon. Tom becomes obsessed with Lina, Nordhagen's alluring assistant. Their affair consumes him completely. Lina draws Tom into increasingly twisted sexual games and forbidden desires. He follows her willingly, unable to resist her pull. The deeper Tom falls under her spell, the more his judgment clouds. His need for Lina blinds him to warning signs around Nordhagen's practice. When Tom stumbles upon Nordhagen's hidden basement laboratory, he uncovers a chamber of horrors. The secret room reveals Nordhagen's true nature as a sadistic experimenter who blends torture with medical procedures. Tom realizes he has been manipulated into a web of cruelty and madness. The fantasy life Lina offered him transforms into a nightmare of violence and depravity.
Genres: suspense, horror, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: dark-romance, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London
Period: 20th-century
369 pages · Paperback · Leisure Books
Content warnings: body-horror, graphic-violence, torture