The Mind Game
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Audio Cassette
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Audio Cassette
Amazon.co.uk Review
Heartbreak, betrayal, blind animal terror--emotions are events in the brain and the uniqueness of our feelings is one of the things that makes us human; Hector Macdonald's debut thriller The Mind Game is a virtuoso exploration of those emotions. Oxford student Ben finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of happenstance--he is seduced by Cara at a party and Jenny, who loves him, cripples herself attempting suicide; he is asked to participate in an experiment by a don he hero-worships and finds himself shipped off to a Kenyan resort with Cara, a large expense account and sensors picking up his every feeling; he is framed for drugs charges and flung into a hell-hole jail. Ben discovers that there is no fact of which he can be sure, and almost no one whom he can entirely trust--and he swears vengeance on those who have tricked, corrupted and betrayed him. Macdonald's novel is a twisted maze of ambiguous motives and hidden meanings; it is an impressive display of virtuoso plotting and vivid local colour. It is also an intelligent and inventive display of the author's readings in evolutionary psychology and his concerned musings on where science may lead us. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Synopsis
Mandanzi, Africa. Paradise on earth. Ben knows that nothing this good comes free. But he's prepared to pay the price. What seems on the surface to be a passionate holiday with his lover is, in fact, the first crucial stage of some ground-breaking research. Ben and his renowned Oxford professor are on the brink of developing a cure for that most disturbing illness - sickness of the mind. Lying on the beach with the bewitching Cara, Ben finds it easy to forget the real purpose of his trip to Africa. Until paradise turns to hell, and suddenly he realises that all the rules he thought he was playing by no longer apply.
Heartbreak, betrayal, blind animal terror--emotions are events in the brain and the uniqueness of our feelings is one of the things that makes us human; Hector Macdonald's debut thriller The Mind Game is a virtuoso exploration of those emotions. Oxford student Ben finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of happenstance--he is seduced by Cara at a party and Jenny, who loves him, cripples herself attempting suicide; he is asked to participate in an experiment by a don he hero-worships and finds himself shipped off to a Kenyan resort with Cara, a large expense account and sensors picking up his every feeling; he is framed for drugs charges and flung into a hell-hole jail. Ben discovers that there is no fact of which he can be sure, and almost no one whom he can entirely trust--and he swears vengeance on those who have tricked, corrupted and betrayed him. Macdonald's novel is a twisted maze of ambiguous motives and hidden meanings; it is an impressive display of virtuoso plotting and vivid local colour. It is also an intelligent and inventive display of the author's readings in evolutionary psychology and his concerned musings on where science may lead us. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Synopsis
Mandanzi, Africa. Paradise on earth. Ben knows that nothing this good comes free. But he's prepared to pay the price. What seems on the surface to be a passionate holiday with his lover is, in fact, the first crucial stage of some ground-breaking research. Ben and his renowned Oxford professor are on the brink of developing a cure for that most disturbing illness - sickness of the mind. Lying on the beach with the bewitching Cara, Ben finds it easy to forget the real purpose of his trip to Africa. Until paradise turns to hell, and suddenly he realises that all the rules he thought he was playing by no longer apply.
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