"Lauren Teague is a beautiful, defiant, borderline delinquent teenager when her parents bring her to Alex Delaware's office. But for all Alex's skill and effort, Lauren resists - angrily, provocatively. Reluctantly, the psychologist chalks Lauren up as one of the inevitable failures of a challenging profession. But years later, when Alex comes face-to-face with Lauren in a shocking encounter, both doctor and patient are stricken with shame. And then the ultimate horror takes place when, soon after, Lauren's brutalized corpse is found dumped in an alley. Alex disregards the advice of his trusted friend LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, and jeopardizes his relationship with his longtime lover, Robin Castagna, in order to pursue Lauren's murderer. As he investigates his young patient's troubled past, Alex enters the shadowy worlds of fringe psychological experimentation and the sex industry, and then steps into mortal danger where lust and big money collide in Southern California."--BOOK JACKET.