There are books we read that slip under our skin, quicken our pulses, toy with our sense of decency. One such book for me is Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, a love story all wrong, with a narrator who is such a beguiling monster and the object of his affection an innocent confection. It is a story so bewitching that I almost wish I hadn't read it so I could experience it anew. Now I've found another novel that summons that same feeling and mirrors Nabokov's sublime prose: John Banville's Athena.

Morrow, our narrator, immediately lures us into his devious mind, heavy with obsessive thoughts about a young woman he refers to as A. "My love … I would not have thought it possible to fix a single object so steadily for so long in the mind's violent gaze. You. You." On the outside, he is living off the fortune of an eccentric deceased aunt; he is an art expert, one working with some suspicious men who want him to authenticate eight classical paintings stashed in a crumbling home in Dublin. In doing so, he meets the mysterious, alluring A.

Compared to his lover, Morrow describes himself as "a staggered old bull." A is lithe with blue-black hair and pale skin, short black dresses and clicking heels, the devisor of their sexual games, the definition of a sultry ingénue. "No matter how dirty and even dangerous the games we played, something childlike always survived in them." She entices him endlessly, in spite of the detective sniffing around Morrow during the investigation of a series of murders, hinting at a dangerous, violent past. And he does confess bits of a dark history to A.

Banville's erotic tale of obsession blends with the suspenseful storyline of a criminal underworld and their art dealings. Interspersed between Morrow's meandering musings of "lowlifes," lust, and a woman done-in with a knife are his descriptions of the paintings in question -- forgeries or as authentic as Morrow claims? But then, what exactly is the nature of authenticity? Banville slyly asks this question, as layers fall away and identities are not what they seem. It doesn't help that Morrow is an unreliable narrator, prattling about his own sanity and guilt. This is the third in a loose trilogy of Banville's books featuring Morrow. The Book of Evidence and Ghosts offer background on our sinister protagonist.

It is Banville's original characters and intense exposition in Athena that draws one in and won't let go. A is Morrow's everything: "My alpha; my omega;" she is his beginning, his end, his ruin. His Lo to his panting Humbert Humbert. Perhaps it is this window into a world of corruption and perverse pleasure that keeps our shadowy sides in check, satisfying us with the role of mere spectator.

Hi there. Have you found yourself unexpectedly dead? Do you have some lingering anger or unfinished business that you just can't let go of which is keeping you from moving on? Just so you know, there's a guy who can help. They call him Odd Thomas; he lives out there in Pico Mundo, California. You can usually find him working over in the diner, back behind the grill. He has a reputation for helping out the recently dead. He can see things that others can't. Just to warn you though, he's young — only twenty years old — and honestly looks like he should be hanging out at the beach rather than helping out ghosts, but he has other things up his sleeve and is definitely more than he seems.

If you don't believe me, there are a couple of celebrity endorsements you can look into. Elvis Presley, for one, has been hanging around for years trying to get Odd to understand. Oh, right, one big rule. You're not allowed to talk to Odd. I don't know why, you just can't, so do the best you can with those pantomime skills you've developed over the years. Anyway, good luck.

Oh, wait. Before you go, there are a few other things you should probably know:

1. Odd has issues. What twenty-year-old doesn't, right? Just saying, he's dealing with some stuff so it may be difficult to keep him focused. Do the best that you can.
2. If you're really desperate and really need to get him to pay attention, you can pull out all the stops and become a poltergeist. If you end up with enough pent-up anger, this will give you the ability to start throwing things around. It's very effective, but only use it as a last measure. It's very dangerous and you could end up hurting someone.
3. Very important. There are bad things out there. He calls them Bodachs. They basically look like moving piles of smoke. If you see these guys, run. If you see a lot of them, run really fast. They are attracted to evil and if they're hanging around, you know something awful is about to happen.
4. Fortunately, if you need more information, Dean Koontz has written a number of books about Odd's experiences. You can start with the first book, Odd Thomas. If you feel the need to keep going, you can read Forever Odd, Brother Odd, and Odd Hours. There's also the Odd Thomas Series of all four books if you want to get through them all at once.

As I said, good luck! See you on the other side!