"Maybe if I had loved her less, there would have been no murder."
Dr. Cal Bradley begins his confession with these words. The doctor,
a psychiatrist of slight build and thin courage, is near giddy with
love for his beautiful wife Marie. For 15 years, theirs has been an
idyllic marriage with little mention of her mysterious past. Then,
their paths cross with Peter Blue, a spiritual young man with a
radiant smile, whose insecurities lead him to batter his
girlfriend, torch a local church and pull a gun on the Chief of
Police. When the 19-year-old suspect attempts suicide in his jail
cell, the good doctor's expertise is enlisted to evaluate the
troubled Mr. Blue. Thus the downhill slide begins for Dr. Bradley.
How can his lovely Marie, mother of their three children, be
involved?
The small-town police chief, a giant of a man with a chip on his
shoulder, sets his sights on Peter Blue early on, incensed that the
lad had the gall to aim a gun at him. Dr. Bradley has his hands
full keeping the defendant from Chief Hunnicut's clutches as he
desperately tries to unravel the connections to his family and
past. When a malevolent ex-con enters the picture, the downhill
slide gathers speed. Faced with hard decisions, the doctor wages an
internal war, grappling with himself whether to do what's obviously
right or to turn a blind eye.
Amid Peter's prophetic dreams and Cal Bradley's haunted memories of
his sister's suicide, the doctor learns much from his patient. With
his life inexorably intertwined with that of Peter Blue, the
psychiatrist faces several moral dilemmas. Did he counsel his ward
in a manner truly aimed at helping him or might he have
subliminally pushed Peter to the brink?
In this gripping thriller, the power held by the omnipotent
practitioner is well demonstrated. Cal Bradley is highly respected
in his comm