Hostage of Illusions

This sexy puzzler begins with a graying novelist’s escape from a mob. It turns out that the people chasing Pablo are cast-off characters who are disappointed that he won’t continue writing their lives. He bars them from his studio but later opens the door to Laura, a beauty who’s half his age. She used to be his student and now is determined to become his lover. Pablo doesn’t resist; his marriage has long been sexless. Laura soon shows signs of paranoia, which may be justified: her domineering father is a former military man who served during the period of the Argentine government’s greatest crimes. Maybe Laura really is emotionally ill or perhaps she’s just the most difficult of Pablo’s characters. —Mark Jenkins