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Summary
Summary
Susannah Card is a natural mosaic--a woman with control over her multiple personalities. But now she's being sucked into a government experiment that is suddenly going brutally, horribly wrong.
Reviews 2
Booklist Review
When Major Roger Grayson, an Air Force officer specializing in the psychology of terrorism, is asked to investigate a couple of dubious military projects involving Multiple Personality Disorder, he stumbles upon a plot that forces him to risk his life and to question his own sanity. This intelligent thriller may be the veteran Maxim's best novel. It's very well researched and well constructed. Most of its supporting characters are "multiples," people with more than one identity, but Maxim avoids the familiar loony-bin characters that have appeared in other novels on this subject. And Susannah Card, a natural-born "mosaic" --a person with complete control over her multiple personalities--is a particularly fascinating character. Cleverly, Maxim only hints at her internal struggles, allowing readers to put themselves in Card's position and imagine what it would feel like to have several people inside one's mind. In fact, a large part of the novel's success comes from Maxim's knack for knowing exactly how much detail to provide, how far to take things. --David Pitt
Publisher's Weekly Review
Leave it to someone as clever as the author of Haven to come up with a crackerjack thriller premise based on MPD (multiple personality disorder). Dr. Norman Zales is the director of Project Chameleon, whose sinister experiment aims to produce a new breed of spies and assassins who can switch personalities from innocent bystander to stone- cold killer in no time. Under the direction of government agent Prentice Teal, Zales is using his female patients (almost all sufferers of MPD are female) as guinea pigs to create "mosaics"Äpeople who can consciously control their metamorphoses into alternate personalities. Things come to a head when multitalented undercover agent Major Roger Grayson, who carries the physical and psychic scars of a near-fatal betrayal, is asked by a concerned general to investigate Zales and Teal. When an MPD patient commits a shocking crime, the subsequent coverup leads Grayson to the corrupt center of the experiment, a mental health research center, where young female victims of the insidious psychiatric network fight for their lives. At the heart of the labyrinthine mystery is a 10-year-old with near-miraculous powers and a reclusive woman called Susannah Card, both of whom are natural mosaics. Also participating in the fracas are some vengeful neo-Nazis, creepy fathers who've abused their daughters and then committed them to the institution (getting off scot-free as the girls become "turnips"), and a clever romantic triangle with only two people. Maxim's complex plot bounces from APA lingo to computer hacking clues to the murderous/amorous conversation between one woman's two personalities, culminating in a tense climax. As in Haven, Maxim uses the conventions of comedy and farceÄmistaken identity, chance encounters, shifts of allegiance and a deus ex machinaÄto exhilarating effect. This is top-notch thriller with a clever premise and equally proficient meditations on identity and character. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved