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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, February 23, 2002

BOOK REVIEW
Deadly dilemma awaits in 'Analyst'

By Carol Memmott
USA Today

What would you do if you had to choose between killing yourself or allowing a family member to be killed? That's the dilemma facing Ricky Starks in John Katzenbach's soul-searching thriller "The Analyst" (Ballantine, hardcover, $25).

John Katzenbach's "The Analyst" has received several positive reviews — including this one.
Katzenbach is in the middle of a terrific run. The film version of his 1999 novel, "Hart's War," is in theaters; the paperback version is showing up on best-seller lists; and "The Analyst" is receiving positive reviews.

While "Hart's War" deals with a murder trial and an escape from a German prison camp during World War II, "The Analyst" is a contemporary tale of stolen identity, revenge and self-discovery. It begins on Starks' 53rd birthday, when he receives an anonymous letter that's definitely not sent by a well-wisher. "Kill yourself doctor," says the writer, named "Rumplestiltskin." "Jump from a bridge. Blow your brains out with a handgun. Step in front of a midtown bus. Leap in front of a subway. Turn on the gas stove and blow out the pilot light. Find a convenient beam and hang yourself."

Could you ignore such a letter? How about if the letter writer also included a list of 52 of your relatives?

"The Analyst," for the most part, is a plot-driven story that plays on the readers' natural fears in an age when identity theft is considered a heinous crime. Rumplestiltskin, no run-of-the-mill psychopath, begins to strip Starks of his life. As Starks attempts to outrun the threats and play Rumplestiltskin's game, he finds that he's slowly being skinned alive. He loses his reputation, his investments, his home, his credit cards, all of his means of survival.

The story development is smart and imaginative. If "The Analyst" has a weakness, it's that Katzenbach so underplays Starks' personality in the first half of the book that it's hard to worry about the man's welfare.

It's not until the second half of the book, when Starks' identity breaks into two new personas, that he becomes a sympathetic character. When this happens, the story moves at a faster clip.

Katzenbach is a man whose creativity flourishes when he pushes his protagonists into harrowing but character-revealing situations. He catapults his plots forward by allowing his characters to discover their inner strengths and their ability to turn the tables on their enemies. "The Analyst" fits the mold, but it would be more riveting if we could care about Starks from the first page.