Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
Perhaps the only more powerful person than Teddy Franklin in the international banking communities of Wall St., London, and Zurich is Greenspan. When Teddy Franklin decides to make a deal, the Fortune 500 feels the impact as if an earthquake hit. Politicians know not the mess with Teddy because he can break any one of them. However, Teddy's world changes when Barbara Hickman enters his life.
Though three decades younger than him, Teddy covets Barbara like he has not desired any person or thing in years. Teddy treats his approach to Barbara the way he handled a business deal using any means, including immoral to obtain his wants. He gains her inner secrets that she provides to a psychiatrist he arranged for her to see. However, as he obsesses over her, Teddy's world begins to crash around him, leaving him with few options.
THE MADONNA COMPLEX is an entertaining tale centering on the potential destructiveness of obsession. The story line is more of a character study than a thriller as Norman Bogner provides a deep look into Teddy and Barbara's thought processes and inner gut emotions. Graphic sex scenes may turn off some readers, but add to the overall feel of the reader being an observer. Though the subplot involving the law and killers subtract from the tale by trying to twist it into a thriller, the obsession which is the main story line brilliantly works leading to a fabulous absorbing look at extreme behavior.