The Chameleon's Shadow

The Chameleon's Shadow

by Minette Walters (Author)

Synopsis

When Lieutenant Charles Acland is flown home from Iraq with serious head injuries, he faces not only permanent disfigurement but also an apparent change to his previously outgoing personality. Crippled by migraines, and suspicious of his psychiatrist, he begins to display sporadic bouts of aggression, particularly against women, especially his ex-fiancee who seems unable to accept that the relationship is over. After his injuries prevent his return to the army, he cuts all ties with his former life and moves to London. Alone and unmonitored, he sinks into a private world of guilt and paranoid distrust ...until a customer annoys him in a Bermondsey pub and he attracts the attention of local police investigating three murders which appear to have been motivated by extreme rage ...Under suspicion, Acland is forced to confront the real issues behind his isolation. How much control does he have over the dark side of his personality? Do his migraines contribute to his rages? Has he always been the duplicitous chameleon that his ex-fiancee claims? And why if he hates women does he look to a woman for help?

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 544
Edition: Main Market
Publisher: Pan
Published: 02 May 2008

ISBN 10: 0330449559
ISBN 13: 9780330449557

Media Reviews
Suspense-filled . . . This multi-layered story by England's best-selling female crime writer blends current events, the politics of sexual relationships and the development of personal identity into a psychologically compelling novel.
- USA Today
A Walters novel is like no other. She bases her books on facts gathered from real life [and] then embosses with her own painstaking research and fertile imagination . . . The revelations are astounding.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A sizzling psychological thriller.
- Publishers Weekly
Solid plotting, superb characterization, and fascinating information on traumatic brain injuries make this compelling thriller a sure winner . . . Walters' latest suspense tale mixes the creepiness of [an] old noir movie with a contemporary, ripped-from-the-headlines exploration of the aftereffects of traumatic brain injury on soldiers.
- Booklist (starred)
Praise from the UK & Canada:
What marks Minette Walters out from the rest is not just the complex yet utterly convincing psychological profiles she draws of her characters, but the fact that she really gets into the heads of some disturbing people . . . No wonder she is the country's bestselling female crime writer. But even this label does not do justice to the scope and breadth of her gripping, terrifying novels. The Chameleon's Shadow is another classic.
- The Mirror
Minette Walters is one of crime fiction's finest creators of character. That ability is on full show in this novel of trust and fear . . . All the characters are beautifully built, and Acland is a brilliant creation . . . If you like a character-driven crime novel with greatpsychological depth, you'll love The Chameleon's Shadow,
- Globe and Mail (Toronto)
An accomplished psychological thriller . . . The Chameleon's Shadow is as frightening and as compulsively readable as Walters's previous novels, with as ingenious a plot.
- Times Literary Supplement
Minette Walters holds a unique place in crime fiction today. That's because she does so much more than produce tense crime thrillers . . . This is another page-turner and another novel which will deservedly take its place on the bestseller list.
- Sunday Express
Minette Walters is an adventurous novelist . . . In The Chameleon's Shadow, [she] leads us to the answer with her usual disturbing ability to look into damaged minds.
- The Times (London)
A disturbing and fascinating thriller . . . Walters's characters ring true whether she's dealing with a career-obsessed young army officer, a teenage thief or a dirty old man edging towards senility.
- The Spectator

From the Hardcover edition.

Author Bio
Minette Walters is England's bestselling female crime writer. She has won the CWA John Creasey Award for best first crime novel, the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best crime novel published in America and two CWA Gold Daggers for fiction. Minette writes full-time and lives in Dorset with her husband.