An ex-Nazi meets the Long Island Jew­ish psy­chol­o­gist in Andrew Kane’s grip­ping new novel.

Mar­tin Rosen, a high­ly respect­ed and eth­i­cal clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist as well as a best-sell­ing author is at a cross­roads in his own life. He’s lost his wife and baby son in a DUI acci­dent and his young daugh­ter, Eliz­a­beth, has become the cen­ter and pur­pose of his life. Mar­tin has long left his Jew­ish Ortho­dox par­ents’ Brook­lyn home and beliefs and hasn’t looked back. He’s con­fused about his right to a new life, much less a love life, while still griev­ing his loss.

Jacques Benoit is an extreme­ly wealthy inter­na­tion­al hotel czar who has suc­cess­ful­ly hid­den his pri­or life. He was a Nazi offi­cial instru­men­tal in the heinous roundups in Lyon, France. Now liv­ing on Long Island, he expe­ri­ences a rash moment and tries to com­mit sui­cide to assuage his guilt. Benoit then seeks out Rosen as his ther­a­pist for his own rea­sons and devices. He engages in a cat and mouse game through­out their ses­sions where his actions are always cal­cu­lat­ed and delib­er­ate. He even­tu­al­ly shows his cards when he ​“gifts” Rosen with a wartime ​“sou­venir.”

Mar­tin has become involved with the beau­ti­ful Cheryl Man­ning, but some­thing seems amiss. He has nag­ging doubts about her and strug­gles to real­ize what is wrong with their rela­tion­ship. Mean­while a Mossad agent, Galit Stein, is on a mis­sion to avenge the vic­tims of the Holo­caust, but has trapped her­self in a sit­u­a­tion beyond her control.

The main char­ac­ters are joined in the action by FBI and Mossad agents, NYPD, Long Island author­i­ties, and Martin’s colleagues.

From the excit­ing pro­logue on, the read­er intense­ly fol­lows the sus­pense­ful action and psy­cho­log­i­cal war­fare. Pen­sive and reflec­tive office ther­a­py ses­sions and touch­ing fam­i­ly scenes are coun­tered by big burst­ing action scenes that tran­spire in short, pow­er­ful chap­ters. The his­tor­i­cal flash­backs of the vio­lent French roundups are pow­er­ful­ly depict­ed. Long Islanders will nod as they rec­og­nize the many local land­marks included.

Kane brings his own psy­chol­o­gy back­ground, exper­tise, and input to the nar­ra­tive. Patient con­fi­den­tial­i­ty and its far-reach­ing impli­ca­tions are explored. Is not tak­ing an insid­er trad­ing tip from a patient the same as not help­ing author­i­ties find a most cal­lous killer? Will Mar­tin ever betray his ethics for some­one else’s cause? Can being above reproach be achieved? Kane por­trays the many ways psy­chol­o­gists think about think­ing and about the ques­tions they ask or don’t ask.

This immense­ly read­able book presents the themes of for­give­ness, guilt, love, and jus­tice. The cov­er pho­to of the train tracks to death reap­pears often in strate­gic white spaces in the text. It is illus­trat­ed as a small black and white train track with an off­shoot spur. What choic­es and which track will be tak­en? Will the char­ac­ters move from the black­ness of the night to the light of the day?