The Chameleon's Shadow
A Contemporary Psychological Thriller by Minette Walters
Can a brain injury change an individual's personality? That's the central question in this novel about an Iraq war veteran who always happens to be around for murder.
British Lieutenant Charles Ackland was a calm, seemingly-normal guy before an explosion in Iraq took the lives of his two comrades and left him with a severe brain injury and only one eye. As he slowly recovers, the formerly mild-mannered Ackland flies into a rage at the smallest provocation and shows hostility towards female members of the hospital staff. He even tries to strangle his former girlfriend when she comes to visit him.
Charles Ackland
As the lieutenant recovers, he struggles to adjust to life with an injury. His method is to maintain severe control, keeping to himself and sharing little of his story with others, even the psychiatrist that is trying to help him. To aggrevate the situation, he is plagued by migraines that leave him incapicatated for hours, unable to remember what occurred.
He encounters a host of unusual characters when he returns to London, including Jackson, a mannish lesbian doctor with a kind heart and Chalky, a homeless Gulf War veteran with a taste for creme de menthe.
Murders around London
At the same time as Ackland is recovering, a series of attacks around London have left three men dead and one seriously injured. The attacks seem to be hate crimes and all except one victim is gay or bisexual. That these attacks have occurred when Ackland was on leave from the army or in London seeing a specialist lead the London police to question him on more than one occasion. Even those closest to him have begun to wonder whether his brain injury has unleashed some sort of manic anger.
In A Chameleon's Shadow, Walters does what she does best: create an ambiguous, yet tense, environment in which to tell a multi-layered tale. She uses a third person voice combined with "authentic" documents, such as police reports and newspaper accounts to give different slants to the same story. Though A Chameleon's Shadow does drag a bit in the middle, more than her previous novels, the ending more than makes up for that lapse. This thriller is a satisfying look at the inner-workings of the mind.
About Minette Walters
Minette Walters is the author of 14 novels and a number of short stories. Her works have been published in 35 countries. She is a past winner of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award, among several other awards. She lives in Dorset, England. Read more about Ms. Walters on her website.
Related Articles
- The Devil's Feather by Minette Walters
- Volk's Game by Brent Ghelfi
- A Nail Through the Heart by Timothy Hallinan
