Publisher's Weekly
Making good on his reputation for sensual tales of terror (Nightwalker, Phantom, Tessier's new novel is seductive and compulsively readable. The plot is an ingenious metaphor for the '80s zeitgeist, with the power and self-indulgence of business and economics translated into terms of sex and physical control over others' lives. Young American doctor Tom Sutherland is on an extended vacation in London when he meets wealthy, enigmatic plastic surgeon Roger Nordhagen and his assistant, Eurasian beauty Lina Ravachol. While Nordhagen grooms Tom as his successor, Lina shows him a world of erotic, amoral pleasure he had never imagined. Tessier is particularly good at depicting the transition from repugnance to acceptance to participation in acts of casual terror. If the novel turns diffuse and mystic at the end, it has by then drawn the reader into a remarkable complicity with its characters.
Library Journal
Tom Sutherland, a young doctor from the Midwest, decides to spend time in London before starting this practice. There he meets Dr. Roger Nordhagen, a cosmetic surgeon, and his assistant, Lina, who seduce Sutherland into their fantasy world of eroticism, cruelty, and power. The horror in Tessier's latest novel is not supernaturally inspired, but rather a result of the atrocities the human brain can devise. Tessier, author of The Nightwalker and other novels, maintains a fine suspense and a believable aura of spiritual apathy as he charts Sutherland's descent into and acceptance of Nordhagen's hellish world, and he provides a powerful and chilling ending to this parable for the 1980s. A decidely adult horror novel that deserves a wide audience, Finishing Touches is enthusiastically recommended for modern fiction collections. Eric W. Johnson, Univ. of Bridgeport Lib., Conn.
Genre: Horror
Making good on his reputation for sensual tales of terror (Nightwalker, Phantom, Tessier's new novel is seductive and compulsively readable. The plot is an ingenious metaphor for the '80s zeitgeist, with the power and self-indulgence of business and economics translated into terms of sex and physical control over others' lives. Young American doctor Tom Sutherland is on an extended vacation in London when he meets wealthy, enigmatic plastic surgeon Roger Nordhagen and his assistant, Eurasian beauty Lina Ravachol. While Nordhagen grooms Tom as his successor, Lina shows him a world of erotic, amoral pleasure he had never imagined. Tessier is particularly good at depicting the transition from repugnance to acceptance to participation in acts of casual terror. If the novel turns diffuse and mystic at the end, it has by then drawn the reader into a remarkable complicity with its characters.
Library Journal
Tom Sutherland, a young doctor from the Midwest, decides to spend time in London before starting this practice. There he meets Dr. Roger Nordhagen, a cosmetic surgeon, and his assistant, Lina, who seduce Sutherland into their fantasy world of eroticism, cruelty, and power. The horror in Tessier's latest novel is not supernaturally inspired, but rather a result of the atrocities the human brain can devise. Tessier, author of The Nightwalker and other novels, maintains a fine suspense and a believable aura of spiritual apathy as he charts Sutherland's descent into and acceptance of Nordhagen's hellish world, and he provides a powerful and chilling ending to this parable for the 1980s. A decidely adult horror novel that deserves a wide audience, Finishing Touches is enthusiastically recommended for modern fiction collections. Eric W. Johnson, Univ. of Bridgeport Lib., Conn.
Genre: Horror
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