http://www.themysteryreader.com/katzenbach-analyst.html
From the author of a string of fine novels comes a very intelligent, turn-the-pages-as-fast-as-you-can thriller that pits a psychoanalyst against a brilliant - and deeply disturbed - villain. The premise: the villain, who calls himself Rumplestiltskin, has given Dr. Frederick Starks two weeks in which to guess his identity. If he can’t guess it, Rumplestiltskin will begin killing off people close to Dr. Starks, and he’ll keep killing, unless Starks kills himself.
I mean, that’s one killer of a premise: find out who the bad guy is, or you’ll be forced to kill yourself. And Rumplestiltskin doesn’t exactly make it easy for the good doctor: a few tantalizing clues, little verses that could mean nothing, or anything, but that’s it.
Katzenbach, who’s always thinking, is especially clever here. Think about it: if this novel featured a detective as its hero, it wouldn’t work. A detective would know how to find someone who doesn’t want how to be found. The novel would fall flat on its face if its central character were, for example, a politician: imagine a public figure setting off on his own, going on the run, changing his identity, chasing the man who’s got his life in his hands. It just wouldn’t work: way too unbelievable. I’m not sure this story would work as a film, either, although it’s quite likely someone will eventually put it in the big screen (Hollywood likes to make movies out of Katzenbach’s novels, although they advertised Hart’s War so poorly that no one went to see it). In a movie, the plot would seem too slick, too implausible.
Katzenbach spends a lot of time on the small details, lets us see Starks’s indecision, his fear, his confusion. About midway through the novel, we begin to feel that we are Dr. Frederick Starks, fighting for our own lives. In a movie, where events are condensed, where small details are lost, the story would probably just seem slick and Hollywoodish.
There are a lot of novels featuring fiendishly twisted villains and plucky, underdog heroes. Some of them are very good. Few of them are as good as The Analyst. It’s Katzenbach’s best novel.
--David Pitt
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