The Tryst

“One of my patients thinks somebody’s trying to kill him,” Aileen Macklin says to her husband over breakfast. A psychiatrist with a fading marriage, Aileen is haunted by the glue-sniffing lad who comes to her in a panic, begging to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for protection. Gary Dunn clearly needs help: ravaged by his squalid existence, he is paralyzed with fear about a murder he has witnessed and convinced he may be next. Unfortunately for Gary, he may just be right. And unfortunately for Aileen, she becomes far more involved in his case than professional ethics would recommend.

From Publishers WeeklyAileen Macklin, at 35, is trapped in a joyless marriage, and her job as a psychiatrist in an underfunded social program in Thatcher's England offers few rewards; she is "absolutely certain that she is a person to whom nothing more would ever happen." That's as tantalizing a premonition of disaster as the author of a psychological suspense novel can offer, and Dibdin quickly makes good with a tightly coiled, coolly analytical depiction of two crumbling psyches. Into Aileen's life comes a tormented teenaged patient who reminds her of a lost love and carries a troubling burden of guilt. Once a squatter, he now seeks institutionalization and resists Aileen's every effort to uncover the facts causing his terror. This dense, compact mood piece includes stories within stories within flashbacks, preventing its structure from becoming clear until the closing moments. While an ambiguous ending may irritate some readers, the sense of creeping dread that pervades the narrative is sustained superbly throughout, distinguishing this work as both a haunting thriller and as a series of harshly lit snapshots of London's dispossessed. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library JournalEchoes of Alice in Wonderland creep eerily through this short novel that moves between urban British blight and psychiatric wings of old hospitals. While the reader awaits the big moment of the title, the tryst has already happened, with repercussions reverberating throughout the novel. The plot is the amateur detective type, with Aileen, the psychologist, as detective. Steven, the boy assigned to her, is at once victim, patient, conspirator, and Aileen's aborted child. The reader, however, knows far more than Aileen. One wonders about her skill as a psychologist, not to mention her sleuthing ability. Suspense is created by lapses of memory and comprehension and by role reversals. Despite the above-mentioned flaws and an awkward structure, the novel is engaging, especially its dialog and description.- Nancy E. Zuwiyya, Binghamton City Sch. Dist., N.Y.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.