She was 15 when she visited the therapist; still a teen when they had sex. She was 25 when she married him and 44 when she killed him.

Seduced by Madness tells the story of the decadent 1960s and 70s as it's never been told.

Susan and Felix Polk seemed to live the California life that others could only envy. She was beautiful, slim, athletic and intelligent, a stay-at-home mom who doted on her sons. He was 25 years older and had a Ph.D. He was handsome, charming, charismatic and cultured. Dr. Felix Polk was a prominent psychotherapist with a thriving practice. And he loved his wife beyond reason. As they ferried their three sturdy, handsome sons to and from their magnificent arts and crafts home on their wooded estate in Orinda, a suburb of San Francisco, none who saw them knew that they carried a deadly secret, a part of their past that would end in tragedy.

On the night of October 13, 2002 their youngest son found Dr. Polk’s body stretched out like a snow angel on the cool Mexican tiled floor of their pool house. It had been there for almost 24 hours. The secret of how Susan and Felix met, a secret they carefully had guarded for much of their lives, was now very public.

More than three years after he died, Ms. Polk’s dramatic murder case was heard this spring in a Martinez, California courtroom. Sometimes brilliantly and sometimes ineptly, Susan Polk served as her own attorney. In the most heart-wrenching interrogation, she cross-examined the main witnesses against her: two of her sons who had come to despise her. Only her middle son sided with her. Witnesses included dueling pathologists, a psychic investigator and a karate expert.

Was Felix Polk’s death justifiable? Did Susan Polk enter the pool house intending to kill her husband and free herself? Is she correct that he attacked? Or did his wife of 20 years set out to murder him in cold blood?

Carol Pogash tells the true story of this troubled woman and her turbulent marriage to her therapist. Pogash, who lives in the same little town where the murder occurred, is an award-winning journalist. She has covered the Polk story since its inception and knows more about the case than anyone, other than family members. She’s written a chilling story of love, hate, power and control where things are not always what they seem...