Book Review: Phobia by Thomas Luke
When Peter Ross was seven, his little sister died in a swimming pool accident. He developed a crushing fear of swimming. Some years later, Peter’s father threw him into the deep end of the pool, and in his struggles to get out, the boy found that he could swim, and overcame his fear. Dr. Peter Ross grew up to become a brilliant research psychologist, specializing in the study of phobias. And that’s why he’s in Cleveland.
Dr. Ross is exploring the use of “implosion therapy”, overwhelming a phobic person with exposure to what they’re afraid of in a “safe” environment to desensitize them to their fears. He’s been allowed to remodel the Titus E. Frobisher wing of Lakeshore Hospital into a special ward for his experimental volunteers. It contains “The Box”, a room with special projectors that create a 360-degree surround sound film experience of what a person fears most.
His first five patients are all convicted murderers whose phobias led them to kill. Bubba, a West Indian burglar with a fear of snakes. Johnny, a juvenile delinquent with claustrophobia. Barbara, a young woman with agoraphobia. Henry, an aging thief with acrophobia. And Laura, a rape survivor who fears men, and especially the touch of them. Each of them has been offered early parole if they undergo treatment and come out of it cured.
There are a lot of people who are opposed to this project. Other psychologists who think Dr. Ross’ methods are too extreme or counter to good practice. Relatives and friends of the patients’ victims who want punishment, not treatment. Politicians who want to be seen as tough on crime. And of course, the police, especially the very vocal Captain Barnes.
But Dr. Ross seems to be making some progress. Indeed, Barbara is nearing the end of the course of treatment, so she’s allowed a field trip to an open-air park. It doesn’t quite work out, so she heads to Dr. Ross’ apartment as a fallback…only to be killed by a bomb someone planted there.
Captain Barnes investigates, his primary suspects being people connected to Dr. Ross, especially his killer patients. He’s especially interested in Henry, a war veteran with explosives experience…and a cop killer. But despite the police and doctors’ best efforts, the patients die one by one in ways seeming connected to their fears.
This book is a novelization of an early script of Phobia (1980), a poorly received horror movie directed by John Huston and starring Paul Michael Glaser of Starsky fame. It’s easy to tell this was adapted from a movie as several scenes are very cinematic in effect, like the slow pan that reveals the bomb in Dr. Ross’ apartment a few scenes before it explodes.
On the other hand, the literary version allows the writer to get more into information that can’t normally be revealed without tedious infodumps or silly-sounding telepathy.
Dr. Ross is our protagonist through most of the story. He’s a very competitive fellow, determined to win at ice hockey, romance, and curing patients. This can make him come off as arrogant or cold at inopportune moments. He’s currently dating a pretty sculptor, but his co-worker at the hospital he dated for a while still seems to carry a torch for him.
Captain Barnes is an antagonistic force for most of the movie, crude, prone to stereotyping people, and willing to use outdated and possibly illegal methods to interrogate prisoners. He and his main toady are referred to as the “Archie Bunker squad” by the other police at the precinct, who seem anxious for him to screw up, and it’s notable that the cops end up not only not preventing any deaths, but directly contributing to them.
The prisoner patients are surprisingly sympathetic for murderers, and a couple of them are genuinely not criminals outside that killing thing.
I note that one of the reasons the movie performed poorly was that the film poster gave away the big twist, but the movie and the book are trying to conceal the real identity of the killer. As I had not seen this, and the book blurb doesn’t spoil, I was able to enjoy the twist normally.
Content notice: Murder, suicide, death of a child. Disturbing imagery, especially if you have the same phobias as one of the characters. Extramarital sex, including an on-page sex scene. Rape in the backstory. Outdated terms around mental illness, ranging from deliberate bigotry to “just joking” and casual slips. Police brutality. Some strong language.
It’s an okay book with some interesting imagery and a couple of good kills if you’re into that sort of thing. But I can see why it hasn’t been reprinted. Most recommended to horror fans looking for a curiosity.
