One Easy Piece by Don Merritt

Jan Roberts believed in love at first sight. Not that she had ever been in love. In fact, with graduation only months away, she could count her dates on one hand. She was plain, the sort of girl to whom things never happened. Then Tony O'Toole happened. Tony is older (24), charming, experienced, and he introduces Jan to an eroticism all the more intense for being new. If he lies occasionally (he's actually 35), if his grandiose stories contradict each other, if his behavior is erratic, these are just the small prices for a wonderful love.

Then his behavior becomes dangerously erratic, and Tony mother's implores Jan to leave him by revealing a horrifying past. Jan is shocked, but only half-believing. Tony loves her and nothing else matters. And then one night Tony erupts into violence and Jan is plunged into a nightmare of both physical and psychological abuse.

"One Easy Piece" is a powerful, sometimes harrowing story of a girl so hungry for love that she willingly puts her life in jeopardy rather than give up the only thing that makes her feel alive. Tony wanted "one easy piece," and he found it. Jan can only escape to become his prey, stalked by a relentless obsession and a love gone mad.

Donigan Merritt has written a novel of compelling suspense and psychological insight of the menace lurking beneath the surface of a placid Iowa town. One Easy Piece will haunt the reader long after the last page is turned.

Hardcover, 1982 Goodreads: 4