The Chameleon's Shadow

Since her debut novel, The Ice House (1992), best-selling author Minette Walters has risen above the standard fare of mysteries and thrillers and produced works rich in character development and psychological suspense. Despite his rage and instability, Charles Acland proves to be a sympathetic, if somewhat shifty, protagonist?€"no small feat for a writer. Some critics complained of an implausible denouement, and others claimed that the plot became a little unfocused, perhaps because, in the novel?€TMs catalog of social ills, Walters has bitten off slightly more than she can chew. However, Walters' vivid, convincing characters sustain this powerful and engrossing thriller, which successfully provides a sobering examination of the private and collective damage inflicted by war. 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 .. Could Severe Head Injuries Turn A Man Into A Killer? When An Injured Soldier Returns From Iraq, He Appears To Undergo A Complete Change In Personality In The Latest Dark, Complex Thriller From The Queen Of Crime.