Private Purgatory
Publisher: Llumina Press
Published: November 30, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9781595262387
Subjects: Crime & mystery; Mystery/Suspense; Fiction; Fiction - Mystery/ Detective; Mystery & Detective - General
First sentence: The large grandfather clock struck the hour of eight p.m.
Description: This is the first book featuring Ryan Gregorian, a detective working in the Sydney Central Police Department. Ryan offers assistance to an old woman at Mascot airport. He is misled by her white hair but when she turns around to thank him, he realises she is in fact a young lady. She is called Cassandra. The two become friends and over the years Ryan realises that Cassandra appears to have some psychic powers. She has dreams and visions where crimes are committed which she tells Ryan about hoping it will help him catch the killers. Ryan does not tell anyone of Cassandra's powers. He becomes very close to her but several years later he still does not know where she came from, what her surname is and what brought her to Sydney the day they met. Cassandra's life is a bigger mystery than the visions she has. Ryan can find out all about her, but he simply does not want to.
Notes: This book was originally going to be called Shadow of a Doubt. However on re-reading the book several times, a dialogue between two characters in the book referring to Private Purgatory made me decide to change the name of the book. The reference to private purgatory is I guess a question that we all ask ourselves at one time. Why is it that people who committ crimes or unkind acts seem to get away with it? Why is it that karma does not seem to catch up with them? As Max the character in the book says, for these people going to bed every night and waking up every morning with the guilt of what they have done is punishment enough. They are living through their own private purgatory, even though it may not seem so to those around them.
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