A Woman's Touch by Tena Green

The publisher describes A Woman’s Touch as “a riveting, emotional punch in the gut.” I must concur. Tena Green’s psychological thriller is as demented as they come. Don’t get me wrong, Green is a fantastic writer and she spins a tight narrative. It’s just that the story has such a high degree of asperity that I often had to put the book down on purpose, simply to allow myself processing time. Caveat to the reader: A Woman’s Touch is not for the faint of heart. It is not a pretty story. It’s intense and scary as hell. From what I can tell, that was the author’s intent. I am certain that Tena Green wanted to make the reader more than a bit uncomfortable. Although this is a work of fiction, it’s also social commentary.

A Woman’s Touch is about the life-long consequences of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. It is about the creation of real, human monsters--monsters that may be walking among us without us ever picking up on them.

Richard Krevitz grew up with a monster. Richard is a man carrying lots of baggage. His scars are deep and painful. Nevertheless, he’s determined to make a clean break from his abuse-filled childhood. Richard vows to never pass on the sins perpetrated upon him and to establish a normal life.

What Richard doesn’t understand is that when it comes to relationships, like attracts like and hidden pain attracts hidden pain. It is already too late when Richard realizes that he has fallen in love with and married a psychopath. Richard’s wife, Sheryl is the product of skin-crawling, domestic abuse. She’s a monster.

Richard soon discovers the terrible truth about Sheryl and the rest of the story is about Richard’s struggle to escape from the wrath of his twisted, evil wife. To make matters worse, Richard and Sheryl have a child, so the driving issue becomes one of whether Richard will allow this evil to again be passed on.

When Richard decides to save his little girl all hell breaks loose and he is forced to take extreme measures in order to liberate them from Sheryl’s tyranny. The question that remains is whether the authorities that become embroiled in this case can bring themselves to believe that a woman could be the monster. ( )