Stockholm

"Stockholm" is a novel about a Los Angeles newspaper reporter who is given an unwanted and unusual assignment to convince a niece of the publisher to leave a religious cult that has been formed in a remote area of vast Central California.

The reporter, Don Haskins, reluctantly goes. But instead of accomplishing his mission, he finds himself intrigued by a beautiful young girl at the cult, one who appears to have a mysterious background.

An integrated subplot concerns the trial of two girls for the murder of a Beverly Hills–society couple. Haskins covers the murder and trial and finds himself in sympathy with the girls and their lifestyle, just as he has been drawn into the world of the cult. The novel is set in the midseventies, a period of irrational fear that gripped cities following the murders by the Charles Manson girls.

The title is taken from the Stockholm syndrome, an unexpected emotional attachment that develops between a hostage and a captor.