Erin Palmer faced the worst horror any child could endure when she was just 11 years old. A psychopath killed her parents and her little sister right in front of her. Even though she escaped the monster, those memories never left her.

As an adult, she's now a graduate student studying this particular brand of human monster. She goes into a prison every day to conduct sessions with some of the worst psychopaths the world has ever known. Her research catches the attention of a brilliant neuroscientist by the name of Hugh Raborn. He claims to have found a way to isolate the genes that cause psychopathy in humans.

Raborn asks Erin to work with him in finding a cure for psychopathy. She realizes that by doing this, she may be able to restore souls to psychopaths. If they all had a conscience, they would not have the need to hurt others and would feel the ultimate in remorse if they did so. She signs on with Raborn to conduct secret types of experiments on these prisoners that she meets with, hoping that the cure for psychopathy works.

Before she knows it, she's being chased by powerful, shadowy organizations that seem to mean her harm. After hooking up with a mysterious young man named Kyle Hansen, the two of them are suddenly pawns in an operation of global proportions. Soon, it is unclear just who the good guys are and who they should trust.

THE CURE is more of a thinking person's mystery but it is also a lot more than just that. It has motion picture written all over it! I found myself trying to decide what actors would play which roles.

Douglas E. Richards is a very intelligent man in his own right, holding a few impressive degrees. It's clear that he drew on his own knowledge when writing THE CURE. However, that only added to the allure of it.

Starting off with a bang, THE CURE only got better as it went along. I could literally feel the tension coming off the pages. Not only that, but just when you are positive you know what's going on; something else happens that proves just how wrong you were.

I cannot say enough about how great a book THE CURE is. As I've always had an avid interest in psychology as well as how the minds of murderers and serial killers work; this is a book that teaches a lot about the disease of psychopathy.

While you might think at first that a thriller that also educates might be a bad thing; you couldn't be more wrong. When you read THE CURE, you'll be hard pressed to stop before you've reached that last page.