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Ben is a happily married father of two who loves his children and his wife and doesn't hate his job as a car mechanic. But his happiness is marred by vivid, violent nightmares of a white room and an old man, of attacking boys who are tied down and unable to fight back. When he wakes he has real injuries he can't explain and memories that are too clear to be dreams. One afternoon, he's snatched without explanation from his family home by men in black, tied up and bundled into an unmarked van. It's as he's making his escape that he realises he isn't the man he thought he was, and that he has no idea who he really is. Tony is a fifteen-year-old kid with stifling parents and scars covering his body that no child should have had time to collect. He has nightmares too, as clear as real life, of running and being chased, and of a white room in which he's tied down to a bed and can't escape his tormentors. Toby is mostly happy at home despite his overbearing parents, but he's bullied at school and is worried that his English teacher is going to follow up on the scars she saw when she caught him changing his shirt in the teacher's bathroom. Alice is Toby's English teacher. She has a rich father but her life is strangely dreary, like the dull clothes she wears, and she does nothing more exciting than work until she catches Toby changing in the teacher's bathroom one day, sees the scars on his body, and decides that she's going to save him from what she believes is family abuse. Soon, though, she discovers that there's more to Toby than she first suspected, and when her search for answers collides with Ben's escape from the clutches of whatever secret organisation is chasing him, she finds out that she – like him – isn't the person she thinks she is. I don't want to give too much away, because this a brilliant book with a compelling plot and is an engrossing read from start to finish. It's a strangely written novel, switching from a first person narrative for Ben to third person for Alice and Toby. But the reader is quickly invested in all the characters and these oddities in the style don't distract from the masterful plotting or descriptive, engaging prose that carries the story at a fast pace through a complex world of experimental psychology mixed with a dash of science fiction. Read it. There's nothing more I can say. § Madeleine Marsh is an aspiring writer who lives in South West England. She helps run sci-fi conventions and loves modern cinema.
Reviewed by Madeleine Marsh, August 2012
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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