Allen Wyler, Dead Wrong (Astor + Blue Editions, 2012) Dead Wrong is very much a page-turning thriller. The action never stops! The plotting and pacing were excellent, keeping me enthralled. I kept reading past my bedtime to find out what happened next. I'm less enthralled with the characters. The main protagonists were fairly bland -- which I know is a style choice -- and the antagonists tended to be caricatures, albeit well-done and consistent. The world? On a meta-level, the fact that undisclosed "classified" outfits can do anything to someone they target including murdering them -- well, sadly, I do not find that implausible these days, especially when they need to cover their own behinds. On a more grounded level, I can easily believe that any fugitive with savvy could hide from pursuit in a hospital, for any length of time. Those places are pure chaos, design-wise! The overall plot premise is intriguing -- the transferring of memories from one brain to another -- but how that could work was pure hand-waving (transplanting a plug of tissue is highly unlikely to make memories integrate with the memories already in place, plus, one would then have two memory lines -- one with the false memories and one without. The new, implanted memories could not, I think, actually take the place of the established ones. But that's a quibble from science fiction; it tweaked my suspension of disbelief. This is usually less relevant for thrillers. While I was a bit slow to get into it, I did find it a compelling read. Very exciting! I would recommend it to people who like medical thrillers, especially if they appreciate evil government agents. |
Rambles.NET book review by Amanda Fisher 24 January 2015 Agree? Disagree? Send us your opinions! |