Doctor Jude Darcy** **is a talented therapist who has an affair and subsequent obsession with his patient Mary Booker. He is described as a tall thin man just shy of forty, his hair dark and often uncombed, threaded with grey at the temple, tired hawklike eyes, with sharp smile lines about his cheek. The wealthy doctor is a gentleman at heart, endearingly abashed and awkward in the presence of others. However, this coyness casts a thin veil across his explosive temper and victimisation. As much as he loves Mary, he resents her. He is not a good man, and knows it, but there is nothing more he hates than being considered a villain.