The Chameleon's Shadow - Minette Walters

I recently had all my shifts changed at work which means that I ended up working 6 weeks of nights - ouch! Knowing that work was going to be quiet and therefore fairly boring, I asked my Dad to recommend me a couple of good books. The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters was one of them. The Author Minette Walters is often referred to as the 'queen of the psychological thriller' and after reading several of her books, you will see that this is a title she deserves. The Chameleon's Shadow is her 12th psychological thriller. Some of her other books include Acid Row, Fox Evil, The Ice House, The Sculptress and The Dark Room. Some of her stories have been ...

I kinda lost patience with Minette Walters a few years back. Whereas her first 6 books were psychological thrillers that were enthralling and addictive, she seemed to opt for a more political stance on subsequent books. Nobody can blame the author for wanting to show development, but unfortunately books such as Fox Evil and Disordered Minds sacrificed the quality of the plot for dalliances with racial abuse and the war in Iraq. Thankfully The Chameleon's Shadow is a somewhat return to form. Of course, Walters hasn't entirely abandoned her political stance with this tale, instead weaving the damage that war can do into the story. Sgt Acland returns home a ...

Lieutenant Charles Acland is serving in Iraq when a roadside bomb shatters the life of him and his colleagues. He is the lucky one - he survives, but with enduring injuries, particularly to the face. When he comes to in hospital, he realises he has lost eight weeks of his life. Things begin to come back to him slowly, but his personality seems to have been changed for good. When he is finally released from hospital, he moves to London where he lives the life of a hermit, until one day when he is involved in a fight in a bar and is rescued by an iron-pumping female doctor called Jackson. But the fight has caught the attention of the police, who are investigating the ...