When Evil Calls Your Name by John Nicholl

Cynthia's life started well.  She loved school and happily went off to university to study the law.  There she met her first love and soon they were living together and talking about marriage.  But tragedy struck.  On the weekend they went so he could meet her family, he was struck while running in a hit and run accident that took his life.  Cynthia was shocked and stunned by grief.  Her family did what they could but she couldn't find her motivation to go back and take up her life.

That is, until she met Dr. David Galbraith.  They met at the funeral and he explained that he was one of her boyfriend's professors in the field of social work and child psychology.  He was very kind and helpful and before Cynthia knew it, she had agreed to go back to school and to change her major to the one Dr. Galbraith instructed.  He arranged everything, her classes, her living arrangements, her food and rent.  Soon he was the most important person in her life.

Now, six years later, Cynthia is in prison for twenty years for murder.  She doesn't understand how she got there and her counselor suggests that she write a journal of her life.  As she does, the reader starts to understand along with her how she got there and how her life turned into such a nightmare.

This is the second novel in the Dr. David Galbraith series and a more controlling, evil character would be hard to imagine.  The author, John Nicholl, was a police officer and a child protection social worker.  His background makes him the perfect person to write about this character.  The reader is drawn into Cynthia's dark world and sees it constricting week after week as her dependence on Galbraith grows.  This book is recommended for thriller readers.