The Chameleon's Shadow » (Bargain)

One of Britain's most popular crime novelists, Minette Walters has attracted as many fans in the U.S. as she has in the U.K. Ever since her first novel, The Ice House, received the esteemed British John Creasey Award for best first crime novel in 1992, Walters has continued to win awards and accolades for her dark thrillers.

In this electrifying new novel from the bestselling author of The Devils Feather, British lieutenant Charles Acland returns home from Iraq, but his serious head injuries are only the outward manifestation of a profound inner change.

Publishers Weekly

Unlike the protagonist of Walters's novel, Vance may not be suffering from a split personality. Still Vance's cabinet of voices-each with its own timbre, character, accent and persona-accurately reflects the multifaceted aspect of Walters's book. Her hero, a wounded British veteran of the war in Iraq who returns home with no recollection of his service, is carefully documented through doctors' accounts and conversations with family members and others. Vance is a gifted enough mimic that one occasionally forgets that all these voices are emerging from the same throat. Some of the nuance-of British class and education, or lack thereof, as coded in the relative width or narrowness of vowels and consonants-may be lost on some American listeners, but it demonstrates Vance's expertise. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 26, 2007). (Jan.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.