Ransom's Voice

Dominique Stein is beautiful, young, and Jewish. Her sanity is overly dependent on external cues, chameleon-like. She awakens every morning at 5:59:59. She weighs in at exactly 111, her snug palindrome. These are her "friends". They keep her safe. Then, it all explodes. She desperately searches to find her way back inside that cozy bubble of sanity she had constructed. Lost, her bearings off and wobbly, her instincts are not functioning. Crimes are committed; not everyone survives. Found not guiltyby virtue of temporary insanity, she is sent to a psychiatric prison for women. There she is caught between the kind, serene Freudian analyst, Dr. Haddad, and the head of the institute, the manic, megalomaniacal Dr. du Chevre, who offers her the Faustian contract; be the subject for his secretive, odd research, and he will get her out of prison earlier. Dominique has to navigate her way out of this maze of institutional insanity. Which shrink is telling her the truth? Or, are they both lying to her, manipulating her for their own strange motives? All of this while trying to survive the random explosive violence of the women's prison. In this psychological thriller, Gary Dvorkin crafts a compelling story of love, betrayal, and reality-shifting anxiety. Dominique hears many voices in her life. But which one can she trust? Which voice will ransom her sanity?