{Review} The Obsession: Truth Beauty Trilogy (Volume 1) by T. V. LoCicero

ISBN #: 978-0615681351

Page Count: 352

Copyright: August 13, 2012

Publisher: TLC Media

Description:

(Taken from Amazon)

At a conference in Italy's lake district, American graduate student Stanford Lyle is enchanted with Lina Lentini, a lovely Italian professor of comparative lit. And when she lectures for a term at his mid-Michigan university, she considers a fling with Stan - until she meets John Martens, a professor, author and Stan's mentor. In her passionate affair with John, Lina becomes Stan's obsession, a hated nemesis for John's troubled wife, and the object of a vicious series of attacks aimed at destroying her reputation.

Lina loves the line from Keats, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," even as her life fills with duplicity. John is pledged to do the right thing with his wife but often does not. And Stan surprises himself with the depth of his own perversity.

Forced back to her home in Bologna, Lina begins to reset her life. Then Stan appears on her doorstep. When John joins them, Stan schemes, threatens and stalks the lovers, first under the city's ancient porticoes and finally to the legendary Sicilian mountain town of Taormina with a shocking confrontation on the slopes of volcanic Mt. Etna.

The Obsession is the first entry in the Truth Beauty Trilogy, a dark edgy saga of suspense and murder that ranges across locations in the U.S., Europe, and the Bahamas.

Charlene's Review:

Stanford Lyle has his sights set on Italian professor, Lina. When Lina comes to the states as a guest lecturer, Stan, as a representative of his graduate school, sets Lina up with a temporary home, and introduces her around to his friends and staff, all in a prelude to what he hopes to be a romantic relationship. When she rebuffs his advances, Stan takes his obsession to terrifying levels. As her friends and lover join in to protect her from Stan, his violence reaches its peak. Lina is eventually forced to return to her home in Bologna, but soon, Stan finds her and the obsession continues to a climactic end.

The Obsession is not for the literary faint of heart. 339 pages is what it takes to reach its ending, and there are a few places when I just didn't think we would ever arrive. The premise of the book is sound, and the action sustaining, but it was a bit wordy in places and that dragged me down a bit. It took quite a while to review this book. That being said, Mr. LoCicero leaves little to the imagination, especially regarding his characters and their personalities. I felt they were old friends by the conclusion.

Religion, intrigue, stalking, fornication, murder, and even cancer round out a story of just about everything except "truth and beauty." A rather slanted view of Christianity, as well as politics, is profoundly evident, and nearly-pornographic scenes can be found among the pages of this book. This is a deeply disturbing look at the mind of a man obsessed, and the levels to which a person can go when they are being threatened.

While there was much I didn't particularly care for in the book, based solely on my own comfort level, this is a powerful, engaging story and one that followers of this particular genre would most likely enjoy.

I would give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.


*A paperback copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.