MixedBook OxygenHartland’s treatment sessions are small masterclasses in the art and practice of therapy; and Hartland is portrayed convincingly as a practitioner who knows very well when she has crossed the line but cannot stop herself. This should be enough to engender tension. However, Hartland’s self-centredness drains some of the reader’s sympathy and therefore reduces the suspense ... Even the climactic violence of this well-informed story about obsession reaches us at one remove, with the central character, somewhat unsatisfactorily, obstructing the view.
