About This Book
The serial arsonist symbolically attacks old men he feels are guilty of sabotaging his life by destroying his chances of happiness with his one true love and "childhood sweetheart." Believing that they are the cause of his hermit-like loveless existence, he is obsessed with the idea that if their primitive dwellings didn't exist, the old men living within those shacks wouldn't have a haunt to manipulate others, and their poison would die out. Scarred as a child by the poison of one such old man, he believes that his only chance to regain the respect and companionship of the only person he ever loved is to cancel the poison. To earn her admiration he needs her forgiveness. He must destroy the shacks to reclaim his "love." Meanwhile, a newscast about a serial arsonist and a fear of thunderstorms jogs Monica Jacobs' memory, rewinding twenty-eight years since a tragic childhood incident. The celebrated author of numerous books on child abuse doesn't have a choice. The skeleton in her closet wants out and craves recognition, forcing Monica into the stratagem of a psychotic man who believes she belongs to him. Through numerous undertakings he masterminds her reaction and love. The intrusion transforms Monica's normally carefree existence into a chaotic spin, and wreaks havoc on her ten-year marriage, full of magnetism, humor, jealousy, and love, and leads her toward an end she may never comprehend or even survive.
