The Spiral, by Iain Ryan

Erma Bridges is an overachieving young academic with a ruthless nature. Dragged back from an international conference to face a harassment inquiry, she discovers that her research assistant is her violent enemy. After recovering from a traumatic attack, Erma becomes obsessed with finding out why she was targeted. Meanwhile her dreams take her into a fantasy world where she is a character who battles obstacles and slays enemies, based on the choose your own adventure books she loved as a child. These books are the basis of her academic research, their author an elusive interview subject. Through her investigations Erma stumbles into Brisbane’s dark underbelly, where dark secrets from her past emerge as a link to an ongoing misogynist conspiracy. Erma is a complex character, attractive but unlikeable, who becomes more comprehensible as her past emerges. Ryan pulls together the disparate strands of the story into a logical, if horrifying climax where Erma becomes her own avatar. It’s unfortunate that the consequences are just not believable, especially given Erma’s past. Something of a cliffhanger ending opens the way for a sequel or perhaps just indicates uncertainty about the path Erma will choose next.