Twenty-five-year-old Lucy Lowell comes to see Dr. Alex Delaware after the trauma of serving as a juror on a serial-murder case. Since the guilty verdict she has been tormented by a recurring nightmare -- child in the forest at night, watching a strange and furtive burial. The dream is so real, its grip on Lucy's emotions so strong, that Alex wonders if it may be the repressed memory of something very real: a murder. For Alex and his patient, a session of hypnotic regression will be the start of a journey to frightening truth, as Alex finds a link between the dream and Lucy's famous father, once a literary giant, now a recluse. When Lucy insists someone is trying to kill her, Alex must determine whether her fears are self-induced, or whether a flesh-and-blood killer is desperate to eliminate the final witness. With its haunting images and riveting pace, "Self -Defense" demonstrates conclusively why there are 15 million copies of Jonathan Kellerman's novels in print worldwide.