PANIC ATTACK by Jason Starr

This book had a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, and in some ways I can understand that. It tells an interesting story from four different perspectives. There's Dr. Adam Bloom, as psychologist who doesn't emotionally connect with his wife, Dana or his self involved daughter, Marissa.

The family is supposed to be in Florida, visiting Alan's mother when they are robbed. They didn't go because of the weather and hear the intruders. Alan pulls out a gun and kills one of the intruders, which sparks a contrived act of revenge by the second intruder.

Dana is more interested in pointing out Adam's faults, why her life sucks and what's wrong with everyone and how they treat her that she doesn't see that her having an affair with the local trainer influences how she treats her husband. She's pissed that he used the gun to protect his home and family and continues to blame him for how their lives spiral out of control after the shooting.

Marissa is a spoiled, self involved brat. She's graduated from college with an art history major, quit her first job after one month, because she thought the job was beneath her, and moved into her parents home where all she does is hang out with her friends, drink, get high and have sex in her parents home while her father supports them. She is just as angry with her father for using the gun during the robbery. She can't believe he can't express his emotions and thinks he should behave as she wants him to and now how he is. She doesn't make allowances for the fact that he may not know how to handle what's happened. She forms a relationship with Xan, who is really Johnny Long, the other robber.

Johnny has killed his partner, Carlos' girlfriend, who was also the Bloom's maid. After Adam's emotionless interviews about the shooting and the media accuse him of being a vigilante, Johnny goes on an ever growing crusade to make them pay for the killing of Carlos. Forgetting the fact that they were robbing the family. All Johnny can see is that they are a rich family who has everything and he wants them to pay for his horrible life and killing Carlos. Johnny first plans on getting close to Marissa and then killing them all after being invited into their home for dinner, but the plan evolves as Johnny figures out a way to expose all of their secrets to the, use his knowledge of the family turn them against each other and kill them off one by one.

Dana is the first to go, and when Adam doesn't come home right away, Johnny eludes to the fact that Adam may have killed Dana. Now Adam is a suspect and Marissa believes this is also true.

My problem with this is that Marissa lives in her parents house and spends their money like they owe it to her to care for her, yet she's highly disrespectful to her father. She believes her mother should just leave her father, but doesn't realized that her mother doesn't really have a life as she's been a mother and housewife for more than a decade and being alone at an older age isn't the same as being alone in your twenties.

When Adam starts to put the pieces together and becomes suspicious of Xan, Marissa is the first to jump all over him and accuse her father of trying to shift the blame from himself. She's more apt to believe her father could kill her mother than a boyfriend she's known for a week or two.

I liked the book coming from different perspectives in almost each chapter, but there's not enough suspense and I believe that Johnny's reasons for going after the Bloom family are flimsy at best. If he had other mental problems, seemed to have a history of toying with people, other than women just to get their money, or if he came across as just more dangerous, I would like this book better.

My favorite thing is how Johnny believes he's the best lover in the world, but after having sex with Marissa, in her recount, she says he seemed nervous, trying too hard and that maybe he would get better when they knew each other better.