[.ca] The Chameleon's Shadow (ISBN 0307264637)

War and The Disturbed Mind:
Walters, in her latest novel, has ventured into a new subject matter: psychological crime thriller. As usual, she creates a difficult and gruesome set of circumstances from which to spring her story. This time, however, it is a British soldier, Charles Acland, sustaining a terrible head wound while fighting in Iraq that launches this singularly complex journey into a world where he vainly struggles to recover his past. Along the way, he is going to meet people who will both help and hinder his search for why he's the way is: angry, suspicious, paranoid, and aggressive. His guardian angel will turn out to be the most unlikely individual - a husky, butchy female doctor posing as a weightlifter - who seems to possess the canny ability to both appeal to his gruff exterior and his less obvious, underlying gentleness. She and a female psychiatrist, Daisy, befriend Acland with the intent of taking him through the pressing and threatening issues in his life, while, at the same time, shielding him from a society and its criminal justice system that wants to write him of as a social monster and misfit. Don't be surprised to learn at the end that Walters has taken you on a journey full of non-sequitors meant to challenge one's grip on reality. Charles is definitely a chameleon character who has to sort out who he truly is, even if it means learning that he isn't that tough macho figure he always thought he was. What Charles discovers about himself is that he is not quite prepared to take on the truth about his vulnerable and addled life when it confronts him in full force. I like a Minette Walter's thriller because it is usually well orchestrated enough that I, the reader, has no problem following the labyrinth of her thinking.

Ending not as good as what came before:
Minette Walters newest psychological suspense novel focuses on the effects of war, not on those who inhabit the country of warfare, but rather on those who fight the wars, and the horrendous injuries they sustain that affect every aspect of their lives, both physically and psychologically. The protagonist is British lieutenant Charles Acland, 26 years old, home from Iraq with devastating head injuries, including loss of sight in one eye and total disfigurement of that side of his face, tinnitus, and migraine headaches. Even worse are the resultant personality changes: suspicion of those around him almost to the point of paranoia; outbursts of uncontrolled anger \ored mist is a recurring phrase\c; distrust of nearly everyone, especially women; inability to tolerate being touched whether all this is the result of post-traumatic guilt over the death of two of the men under him in the same attack or what is termed the prolonged destruction of a personality, or something else entirely, is unclear. The effects of traumatic brain injury and subsequent antisocial behavior are explored. When several men in the London area are attacked and beaten to death over a period of several months, and it appears that it is the work of one man, Acland falls under suspicion. It is unclear to the police, and the reader, whether or not he is in fact the attacker. He unwillingly turns for aid to a woman whose lesbian partner runs a bar in which he has started a fight, a doctor called merely Jackson. A fascinating creation, she is variously described as being the size of a whale and over six feet & this wide and looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but she earns Aclands grudging respect and becomes his savior, his psychiatrist \othough that is not her area of medical specialization\c and, ultimately, his friend.. The title derives from (1) Acland being described as, chameleon-like, projecting different images of himself to different people, and (2) the Jungian definition of a shadow as the dark aspect of personality formed by those fears and unpleasant emotions which, being rejected by the self or persona of which an individual is conscious, exist in the personal unconscious. The view is a disturbing one. I must admit that I couldnt help but feel that the resolution was somehow less compelling than that which had preceded it. Nonetheless, Ms. Walters has again written a gripping and suspenseful novel.

Disappointed:
"The Chameleion's Shadow" was a big disappointment. I love everything Minette Walters has written before this, and so I was eager to read this book. Minette seems to have lost her ability to invent characters with whom the reader can sympathize. Her characters are unique, just not likeable or fleshed out. This book consists of very inventive conversations among the characters, arguing, much like lawyers in court, alternate theories about why and how crimes were committed. The convoluted theories are just boring and tedious and while I wanted to know the ending, I couldn't wait for it.