False Memory: Dean Koontz

Martie Rhodes, happily married, successful video game designer, is a compassionate friend to agoraphobic Susan, who she accompanies to therapy each week. The experience, though grim, has been a bond between the two women. Then Martie experiences an irrational fear of her own. She feels a brief, disquieting fear of - her shadow. There is something twisted in it, something not right. Other anxiety attacks ensure until Martie finds she is the victim of the rarest of all phobias known: autophobia, fear of oneself. Martie's life changes radically and her future looks dark. Her husband Dusty loves her and is desperate to understand the nature and cause of her autophobia. But as Dusty comes closer to the terrible truth, he begins to exhibit symptoms of a psychological disorder, even more unusual and terrible than that which afflicts Martie.