Finishing Touches [Mass Market Paperback]

Thomas Tessier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2005

Publisher: Leisure Arts Book Nbr:528 Year: 1987 Artist: Terrie Lee Steinmeyer Easy Condition: Used - Very good condition overall. Number written on front. Small delicate motifs plus an alphabet for monograms.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Making good on his reputation for sensual tales of terror (Nightwalker, Phantom, Tessier's new novel is seductive and compulsively readable. The plot is an ingenious metaphor for the '80s zeitgeist, with the power and self-indulgence of business and economics translated into terms of sex and physical control over others' lives. Young American doctor Tom Sutherland is on an extended vacation in London when he meets wealthy, enigmatic plastic surgeon Roger Nordhagen and his assistant, Eurasian beauty Lina Ravachol. While Nordhagen grooms Tom as his successor, Lina shows him a world of erotic, amoral pleasure he had never imagined. Tessier is particularly good at depicting the transition from repugnance to acceptance to participation in acts of casual terror. If the novel turns diffuse and mystic at the end, it has by then drawn the reader into a remarkable complicity with its characters.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Tom Sutherland, a young doctor from the Midwest, decides to spend time in London before starting this practice. There he meets Dr. Roger Nordhagen, a cosmetic surgeon, and his assistant, Lina, who seduce Sutherland into their fantasy world of eroticism, cruelty, and power. The horror in Tessier's latest novel is not supernaturally inspired, but rather a result of the atrocities the human brain can devise. Tessier, author of The Nightwalker and other novels, maintains a fine suspense and a believable aura of spiritual apathy as he charts Sutherland's descent into and acceptance of Nordhagen's hellish world, and he provides a powerful and chilling ending to this parable for the 1980s. A decidely adult horror novel that deserves a wide audience, Finishing Touches is enthusiastically recommended for modern fiction collections. Eric W. Johnson, Univ. of Bridgeport Lib., Conn.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 374 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (August 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843955597
• ISBN-13: 978-0843955590
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,822,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing stuff, August 22, 2005

By 

BarkLessWagMore (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Finishing Touches (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one disturbingly creepy book! It's about Tom, a young-ish American guy, fresh out of medical school and somewhat unsatisfied with the "general practice" position hefell into by default when nothing else grabbed him. He decides to drop everything and take a trip to London. There he meets an older guy, a plastic surgeon, who begins to show him the seedier, hidden side of London nightlife.

One night the Tom is supposed to meet the old doc for a night out on the town (the two have become quite the club go-ers). When Tom shows up at the old doc's office he's told by a gorgeous woman with flowing black locks named Lina that the doc can't make it and she will entertain him instead. Tom can't believe his good fortune. It gets better. Lina is apparently attracted to Tom and they have wild erotic sex (that isn't detailed all that much, darn). Tom is in lurrrve immediately and Lina, though a little aloof and a tad secretive, seems to feel the same. When Tom is completely under Lina's spell he'll soon do anything (and I do mean anything) to keep her in his life. After a completely disturbing episode involving Tom, Lina and an Asian woman (whose name we never know) Tom fears Lina may be a tad, ah, off her rocker. But he's in lurrve, like I said, and can't seem to stay away from her for any length of time. . . The book tells the story from Tom's point of view and really gets into his head. We watch a normal guy play out his deepest, darkest fantasies and see how these episodes change him. It's very dark and got under my skin.

This is stuff that could possibly happen to any normal guy swayed by lust which makes it all the more creepier. Not for the fainter of heart.

This edition also includes a novella by the same author that I didn't find nearly as compelling. The horror of the novella is mostly disgusting rapes and other grossities and was very in-your-face. It's about a pea-brained man who stumbles into a modern day concentration camp. He's lured there by a gorgeously sexy woman (when will you men realize you've got to be wary of them!). They have mad sex and then some very bad things happen. I didn't enjoy this one on any level but Finishing Touches is worth a read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literary Snuff, February 12, 2006

By 

S. Harris (Spotsylvania, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finishing Touches (Mass Market Paperback)

Thomas Tessier has been called a master of "quiet" horror. Maybe so. He certainly is a smooth writer, good with pacing, dialogue and description. But when it comes to horror, he certainly yields no ground to any other writer. Actually his brand of horror is far worse. It gets into the mind, because there is a philosophy behind it. No better example of this is his short novel "Finishing Touches."

"Finishing Touches" tells the story of doctor to be Tom Sutherland. Sutherland has inherited a bit of money, and feeling he's lived in an educational "cocoon" for so many years, he's anxious to experience life before settling down to the suburban existence of a general practitioner. Events unfold in such a way however as to have him residing in London for a 6 month stay. It is there he soon meets Dr. Roger Nordhagen, who is of course insane. But the good (evil) doctor recognizes a like soul when he sees one, perhaps even one who can take his vision of "Now" to the next post modern level. Before long Tom and Dr. Nordhagen are crawling through the more exotic English clubs, and Tom soon meets Nordhagen's assistant, Lina. There is sex, which is the initial bait for Tom. And there is lots of it, but it's the kind of sex you might find in a Kubrick film. Detached, part of a larger Power game, that Tom senses the outlines of. And the game is one that is removed from any morality. Indeed, Nordhagen's whole philosophy is based upon immediate experience. And in a world where you have your Jeffrey Dahmers and Bin Ladens, who, he would say, can fault him? He just wants his piece of the Terror pie.

This is grim, unrelenting and poison filled stuff, wrapped in flawless prose. On a technical level Tessier succeeds brilliantly, which is why I'm giving this 5 stars. But if you allow for a human factor, you might want to give this a zero. Tessier is a superb connoisseur of atrocity, but for any serious follower of current events - isn't that more of the same? At some time Dr. Sutherland and Lina will encounter that question when the kicks of killing become endless reruns. And at that point, hopefully, they too will "return their tickets" to God.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A shocking seduction, January 26, 2006

By 

Henry W. Wagner (Rockaway, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finishing Touches (Mass Market Paperback)

It only takes a few pages for readers of Tom Tessier's Finishing Touches to realize they're in the hands of master, as he quickly and expertly establishes his characters and milieu, all the while setting the stage for the shocking surprises he has in store. A key element in coming to this realization is how easy it is to sympathize with his main character, Dr. Tom Sutherland, an American in London who, after completing his medical education, decides to spend some time in Europe before embarking on his career. At a major crossroads on his life, the twenty eight year old Sutherland is in a place many of us have been ourselves, unsure of himself as he embarks in a new direction.

While in London, Sutherland meets the enigmatic Roger Nordhagen, a plastic surgeon who sees himself as the man who puts the "finishing touches" on his patients. Intrigued by the strange old man, Sutherland allows Nordhagen to show him a hidden London. His education is furthered by the lovely and dangerous Lina Ravachol, Nordhagen's assistant. Together, Nordhagen and Ravachol provide some unique and decidedly disturbing "finishing touches" to Sutherland's personality and psyche.

The horror in Finishing Touches arrives relatively deep into the story, as Sutherland is seduced into accepting another reality one step at a time; how convincing this process is to you personally will depend on your belief in the transforming power of love. The intriguing thing is how Tessier ratchets up the terror-just when you're convinced it can't get worse, it does. That's the beauty and horror of reading this book-you become as hypnotized by Tessier's prose as Sutherland is mesmerized by the exquisite Lina and the new world to which she introduces him.

This book has gained a certain reputation over the years, such that it's recently been included as a "best book" in Stephen Jones and Kim Newman's follow-up to their exquisite 1998 anthology Horror: 100 Best Books, Horror: 100 More Best Books. There's a reason a Tessier novel has been featured in each of these volumes (the other one is the horror classic The Nightwalker): he's THAT good.