Rating: 
Summary: Cat-and-Mouse Thriller with a Twist!
Review: One of the things that I enjoy most about John Katzenbach's novels is that he consistently takes the what-if principle of story-telling to its ultimate limits without ever violating his readers' need to accept and believe in the logical probability of whatever human situation he has chosen to explore. THE ANALYST is certainly case-in-point. Here he is asking what-if? an inherently good if rather conventional man, Dr. Frederick Starks...a thoroughly competent, much-revered New York psychoanalyst...has inadvertantly harmed a patient during the course of his long and distinguished career. What if? that patient has now decided to seek revenge long after the fact by destroying everything that Starks holds dear? Could this actually happen? John Katzenbach shows us in chilling detail that such ruination is indeed not only probable, but possible, and the reader becomes completely caught up in a quicksand world of shadows where nothing seems too farfetched to be true, sharing Starks' increasingly desperate need-to-know how and why his life is suddenly crumbling around him and then DO! something about it. The choices which he makes when he decides to act instead of react are utterly riveting.This wonderfully intricate thriller worked extremely well for me on several levels. Since its plot premise is so highly melodramatic, I really needed to be able to accept the down-to-earth reality of both Dr. Starks and his antagonist. Well, vivid characterization is one of Mr. Katzenbach's fortes; central or peripheral, his people are alive! Also, since the web of entrapment is so very convoluted, taut, hell-for-leather pacing was another absolutely crucial 'must' for me. Again...kudos! Mr. Katzenbach. This diabolic game of cat-and-mouse is perfectly devised and structured to grab the reader from the outset and keep him glued to his chair until its ironic yet oh-so-thoroughly satisfying denouement. Long and short...chalk up another genric bullseye for John Katzenbach, and oh! what a great movie it could be!
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional book
Review: Probably the best mystery I have read in years (and I have read alot). Rarely is the protagonist in a book the victim...and Katzenbach has done this superbly well. His main character is very believeable and the suspense is great. This should have been a best seller!
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best novel by this author!
Review: I've read this book after reading "Madman's Tale" by this writer that I thought was brilliant. I guess I set too high expectations because 'Analyst' was quite disappointment. It's not that this is a bad book. It's a well done thriller and the author is just a very good writer. You still want to get to the end to resolve the mystery. At the same time, the book is sometimes slow and in some parts is quite predictable (maybe I am so brilliant but I figured out much of the plot by the middle of the book). Still, it is much better that majority of thrillers out there.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Outrageous thriller. Read all night just to get to the end. Many twists and turns, it will keep you guessing. A true masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: A soul-searching thriller
Review: Dr Frederick Starks is a widowed psychoanalyst in New York. He is a man devoted to regularity, almost touching on obsession, because he thinks that by imposing reason on his day-to-day life he can make sense more easily with the chaos that his patients bring to him daily. He is therefore all the more distraught when, on his 53rd birthday, he receives a mysterious envelope containing a frightening text. The opening sentence of the letter welcomes him to the first day of his death... The author of the letter, a certain Rumplestiltskin, claims that Dr Starks ruined his life and now wishes that he kills himself within a time frame of exactly fifteen days. If Dr Starks refuses to commit suicide, his relatives will suffer torments which they will never recover from.
Who could that Rumplestiltskin be and what made him hate Dr Starks so furiously? A former patient? A madman? Dr Starks will soon realise how seriously he had better take these menaces if he wants to survive the imposed fifteen-day deadline, the most dreadful fifteen days one can imagine.
Breathtaking suspense, intelligent characters and an utterly believable plot are the ingredients which make Mr Katzenbach's novel a real pleasure to devour.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best I've read
Review: My first book by this author. But it will not be the last. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional book
Review: Probably the best mystery I have read in years (and I have read alot). Rarely is the protagonist in a book the victim...and Katzenbach has done this superbly well. His main character is very believeable and the suspense is great. This should have been a best seller!
Rating:
Summary: Difficult to put down
Review: Dr. Frederick Starks, a New York City psychoanalyst, lives within a highly structured world. He sees his high-class neurotic patients by day and conforms to a rigid lifestyle at night as he tries to forget about his late wife. His sole respite is the annual month long vacation to Cape Cod in the summer. It is on the eve of such an excursion and on his 53rd birthday that he receives a threatening letter. The letter states, "Welcome to the first day of your death...you ruined my life. And now I fully intend to ruin yours." The demand is for Dr. Starks' suicide or an innocent yet distant family member will be killed. The only way for him to "win" this game is to discover who his tormentor is. This, of course totally changes Frederick Starks' life as his comfortable surroundings crumble away. It is a race against time in which someone must die.
John Katzenbach is a very versatile writer who seems to be as comfortable writing a drama about a WWII prisoner of war camp as in HART'S WAR as he is writing this thriller on personal redemption and the process an individual would go to redefine themselves. The actual plot is a quite impressive game of cat and mouse with a gradual changing of those roles. Characters are adeptly portrayed. As we progress further into the plight of the main protagonist, the book becomes increasingly difficult to put down. Mr. Katzenbach is a superb entertainer and one whose books deserve the accolades many have already received.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting thriller that could've been better
Review: In Katzenbach's The Analyst, Dr. Frederick Starks has 15 days to find out who is threatening him, or else kill himself, to save the lives of his family. The plot is very intriguing, and the first half of this book that covers that 15 days is exciting as Starks tries to dig his way out of the brilliantly planned attack by one of his former patients.
There are plenty of twists including an obvious one that none the less surprised me that allows Starks to turn the tables on his pursuers.
The ending of the book is also exciting and the final few pages are very interesting.
I did have a few complaints. Dr. Starks is an analyst and while the story revolves around this fact, it seems any profession could have been used. Maybe a few more plot points revolving around Starks' profession would have made this book more than a standard cat and mouse novel.
Also, one of the secondary bad guys seems to be a stretch and doesn't add much to the final believability of the true bad guy. Also, in this 500 page novel, Starks is alone. The story would've been better if Starks had a friend or a lover or family to share is dilemma with.
Despite the above, I really enjoyed this novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Unique Experience Filled with Tension and Twists
Review: The Analyst is totally different than just about every other book I have read. Yes, I've read plenty of thrillers before - some good, some bad - but The Analyst is an absolute one-off. Usually I don't mention the specifics of the plot in the review, normally the synopsis Amazon provides is good enough, but in this case it takes some explaining. Dr. Frederick Sparks is a psychoanalyst, a man who examines the problems of others and offers them treatment. One day before his August holiday he receives a strange letter signed by Rumplestiltskin, and boy, then his troubles really begin. The first half of the book is a twisting path of lies, deception and strange happenings as Dr. Sparks struggles to find out who is his tormentor while his life gradually falls apart in spectacular and terrifying fashion. This part of the book whizzes by and is amazingly tense and suspenseful. I loved this part as it made my stomach turn to knots and my muscles tighten up - a sure sign that the thriller is doing its job! I won't give anything away, but the second half of the book is more slowly paced as something happens to change Dr. Sparks fortunes, but it is still fantastic and intriguing. I was with Dr. Sparks the whole way, urging him on and willing him to succeed. Overall The Analyst is an unusual and beautiful thriller which deals with an unlikely sounding plot and makes it seem chillingly real. Dr. Sparks is immensely likeable and well developed and we come to sympathise as well as respect him. Finally, I must mention the excellent writing style, which is very descriptive and original, adding menace to the plot. I read the book as quickly as I could, devouring the pages. I think you will too. JoAnne
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