“The world runs on fetishes, things we like and believe in. The corporate world spends billions to promote them. They call it brand marketing. They show, we trigger: Mercedes, Nike, Apple, the Golden Arches, IBM, Amazon, Google, Coca-Cola, Netflix, Starbucks. An endless list. Relentless.”

That’s one way of looking at things. It’s the way fictional San Francisco media executive Mary Steff, a BDSM enthusiast, generalizes and justifies her personal erotic preferences in author Julia Wood’s provocative thriller "Possessed."

The author, in taking it a step further, explains, “Most of us are possessed, controlled, by our circumstances—genes, family, work, marriage, parenthood, geography, the shackles of our education and work experience that limit our lives and careers. Subtle slavery owns us all.”

So just how subtle is subtle?

That question is explored on many levels in "Possessed": From a sexual perspective, is it “subtle slavery” when the slave willingly and enthusiastically agrees to the relationship? Is it the mere submissive gene at work that allows the slave to agree to its station in the first place? Is there a scenario in which the slave does not agree? Is it pleasurable? Does the slave have to be totally devoid of all power and control to enjoy the circumstance? What exactly does it mean to be possessed?

Steff, in speaking to failed actor and freelance writer Robin Jinnes, has a very personal, powerful fetish in mind – and she has devised a bizarre scheme not only to feast on her obsession but to exact revenge on someone who has wronged her.

Steff is in a precarious position at her publishing house, Mindcraft, not seeing eye to eye and feeling the heat from her chairman to reverse declining profits. The longevity of her plum position is not a safe bet.

But Steff has her eyes on her own prize, which will serve her personal desires, provide the opportunity for continued financial gain, and take care of her intolerable chairman. She plans to create and own a gynoid, a feminine human robot, to serve her every whim.

At a fancy dinner, she tells the down-on-luck Jinnes that her freelance work is being scrapped. That’s the bad news. But Steff offers Jinnes the opportunity to live in luxury in exchange for being Steff’s so-called fembot. In so doing, Robin Jinnes in effect will no longer exist – leave every detail to Steff to make that happen — and be “owned” by Steff in a not-so-subtle-at-all manner. Jinnes will become Steff’s gynoid in totality.

The fembot will take on several personalities, among them: Delight, a beautiful young Caucasian; Black Beauty, a street hooker; Xiuman, from a wealthy, powerful Beijing family; Putita, a pretty Latina prostitute; and Mindy, an innocent teenager. Steff has a special effects expert design prosthetic heads so that the former Jinnes, now known as Delight, can play whatever character Steff chooses. The characters cannot speak or hear – they are totally controlled by Steff’s radio commands.

Beyond satisfying her personal pleasures, Steff plans to take a fabricated story – based on a true one — about Delight to her Hollywood connections in the hope that the screenplay will be the perfect vehicle for the big screen. And then there’s the matter of getting even with her annoying chairman.

The plot thickens when two former professional acquaintances hire a detective to investigate Jinnes’ disappearance. Can they save their past colleague from captivity? Would Jinnes even want to be saved?

So what are the implications of “playing God” by eliminating one person and creating another? Can role-playing for sport go too far? When do fun and games become twisted evil? Where is the line drawn?

In "Possessed," the first book in a series of thrillers, Julia Wood has given us an intriguing plot and some thought-provoking matters to consider about our culture and the passions that consume people. This book is not so much a source or statement on sexual proclivities as it is a fashionable mystery with the sexual landscape as a backdrop. Wood has given us characters whose tendencies extend beyond the mainstream and has delivered a crafty, more so than kinky, examination of how far people might go to fulfill their obsessions.

Says the author, “No subject, however ‘difficult,’ can’t be handled accessibly and tastefully if the writer cares enough. To me, the key is edge activity. Life’s center is safe, boring — MacDonald’s burgers, trillions sold. The limits, where real risk and reward lie, is where existence is compelling.”