The Philosophical Practitioner by Larry Abrams

I've got to tell you, I read The Philosophical Practitioner, by Larry Abrams - enjoyed it, even - but I still can't tell you what a philosophical practitioner is or does.

But I can tell you about this novel.

Eric is a "philosophical practitioner" in New York City. He does not have patients; he has clients. He is not a psychiatrist or a psychologist; he is a philosophical therapist. He tries to help you figure out, philosophically, where you are in life and where you want to be.

And someone wants to kill him.

She had escalated. First the forwarded letter, which in spite of its threat meant she failed to find my new address. Now she had found at least my e-mail address. How, I had no idea, and it probably didn't matter because she couldn't use it to find where I lived without hacking into my ISP's computer systems. Could she do that? Did she know it could be done? From everything I'd read, that would be very difficult even for an experienced hacker. Given the number of people with those skills compared to the total population, she most likely didn't have that capability. Or so I hoped.

When Eric isn't helping his clients or dodging The Gun Lady, as he thinks of his would-be assassin, he is trying to figure out where he is and where he wants to be in his own life, specifically his love life. His one-time girlfriend, Sheila, lives in Los Angeles, where she works as a somewhat famous actress.

The Philosophical Practitioner is several stories in one. You've got the romantic angle with Sheila, the philosophical-slash-self-help angle with Eric and his clients, and the mystery with The Gun Lady. Will Eric and Sheila be able to get over their differences and come together? Can Eric help a wealthy businessman decide to stay with his wife or leave her? And can he determine why The Gun Lady wants to kill him and stop her?

This is an entertaining, fairly well-written book. I admit to occasional "who cares?" moments during the sections dealing with Eric's clients. But the Sheila and Gun Lady story lines made up for that. I cheered on Eric, hoping that he could stay alive and be happy. Author Larry Abrams creates entertaining characters, and perhaps along the way, we readers might pause and reflect on our own lives.



Published by Telemachus Press LLC and available on Amazon.com
Thanks to Net Galley for the preview.