Toxic Love: The Stalking of Nicole Briscoe

A new breed of novel, Toxic Love merges high-suspense entertainment with cutting-edge legal and psychological information to teach workplace violence prevention. Supplementing traditional corporate hand-outs and threat assessment manuals, Toxic Love uses the compelling fictional story of Nicole Briscoe and her colleagues to bring to life the complex issues faced by 21st century managers and employees. Following the principal characters as they navigate these situations, Toxic Love illustrates how their actions and choices have the power to diffuse and/or exacerbate the threats they experience.

Since situations are better understood when viewed from multiple angles, Toxic Love alternates among three perspectives: that of Nicole, Terry (the co-worker who pursues her), and Dr. Rowan (the clinical psychologist hired by Nicole’s company to revamp its workplace violence policy). Unlike passive observers, Toxic Love’s readers participate with Dr. Rowan in Management Response Team meetings, manager training sessions, and threat assessment evaluations as he rolls out a first-class violence prevention program at the fictional high-technology company Neo Networks. While the novel’s characters and events are fictional, they draw on real situations that have been occurring across the US.

Given the increase in certain types of workplace violence, including stalkings and internet crimes, Toxic Love is timely as it demonstrates the power of bringing professional solutions into the workplace. The weaving of new technologies throughout the novel alerts employers and employees to such capabilities, how to look for them and, ultimately, limit their abuse.  

Toxic Love includes a forward written by acclaimed clinical psychologist and workplace violence professional James Turner, Ph.D. and a legal supplement prepared by the law firm of Littler Mendelson, a pioneer in the area of workplace violence prevention law. Toxic Love is uniquely designed to augment and support an organization’s existing workplace violence prevention policy and program. Motivated by Toxic Love’s entertainment and suspense, employers and employees will experience and understand the important role played by an almost invisible group of heroes fighting violence in the workplace: Threat Assessment Professionals.