South Africa needs no introduction to the global narratives of violence and crimes against women and children. With reported sexual offences exceeding 60 000 and incidents of murder totalling 17 805 for the 2014/2015 period, our country's notoriety in this arena contributes to the landscape within which 'The Symbol of No Escape' plays out. As forensic thriller 'The Symbol of No Escape' is an emergent property of qualities that not too many authors are able to harness. These include Dr Tanya Robinson's practical experience and extensive work with the abused child, her knowledge in forensic psychopathology and her laudable scholarly credentials that underpins each page with legitimacy whilst powerfully infusing the characters of protagonist Dr Claire and villain Dann Carmen. The reader is systematically drawn in and absorbed in the lifeworld of Dr Claire, a profiler and expert assessor who is tasked to create a profile that would help close the case against depraved child serial murderer and family killer, Dann Carmen. His crimes are brutal and bizarre, yet Dr Claire's assertion that "Dann instils no fear in me" paves the way for explicating her goal which is to establish what contributed to him becoming a monster (Marcel Van der Watt, University of South Africa, Department of Police Practice).