Dr. Alex Delaware doesn't see many private patients anymore, but the young woman called Lucy is an exception. So is her dream.

Lucy Lowell is a special referral made by Alex's friend Los Angeles police detective Milo Sturgis. A juror at the agonizing trial of a serial killer, Lucy survived that trauma only to be tormented by a recurrent nightmare: a young child in the forest at night, watching a strange and furtive act. Now Lucy's dream is starting to disrupt her waking life, and Alex is concerned.

The power of the dream, its grip on Lucy's emotions, suggests to him that it may be the repressed childhood memory of something very real. Something like murder.

For Alex and his patient, a session of hypnotic regression to the fourth summer of Lucy's life will be the start of a journey as fascinating as it is frightening... And when Lucy begins insisting that someone is trying to kill her, Alex must use all his skills as both psychologist and sleuth to find out whether her fears are self-induced. Or whether a flesh-and-blood killer is desperate to eliminate a witness to a homicide - and the doctor who's unlocked a Pandora's box of secrets.

With its haunting images and riveting pace, Self-Defense is super entertainment from today's most darkly imaginative, consistently surprising author of psychological suspense.