The Placebo Effect (Junction
Chronicles Book One)
by David
Rotenberg
Touchstone (an
imprint of Simon & Schuster Canada, 2012)
338 pages
ISBN
9781439170113 (trade paperback)
I imagine being a human lie detector would have its perks. It would
sure help figuring out who left the milk out on the kitchen
counter! Sorry. Pet peeve. It'd have its drawbacks, too. I just
wouldn't have put money on one of those drawbacks being NSA agents
chasing you down. That's one of Decker Roberts' big problems, but
it's one of many.
Decker is an acting coach, but his real gift comes from the strange
ability to literally see whether people are telling the truth through
visual cues when his eyes are closed. It's not so much that his
Spidey senses tingle when someone lies, but he just innately knows
when the guy is being truthful or not. It's not a talent he gets to
use at parties, but it's a real hit in the corporate world. So, when
Decker's bank accounts are emptied, his line of credit is tampered
with, and his house burns down, Decker suspects one of his clients
has decided he knows too much.
If
that's not bad enough, an agent from the NSA has hunted him down as
part of a clandestine program to study and exploit synaesthates
(where one of the senses like sight gets a few wires crossed with
another) like Decker. Then there's the issue of a shady
pharmaceutical executive with a new drug due to hit the market and
the idiot savant who helped him do it is seeking out Decker, too.
Just paint a big bulls-eye on the poor guy's back--or brain might be
the more apt body part.
The
Placebo Effect is
certainly unique in the thriller genre. This whole idea of the human
senses being mish-mashed in a way was intriguing, and this version
Rotenberg employs with his character, Decker, is something I have
never heard
of before. I had to wonder at times while reading if it was a
complete device of the author's imagination, but I guess there's some
legitimacy to it. And the whole corporate espionage and corruption is
completely believable and easy to get into.
Some of the suspense was diminished for me though, because the
villain is identified rather quickly, so it's less about solving the
mystery through Decker's eyes, but just watching him sweat. Where the
mystery is lost, the dialog is great, and the subplot of Decker's
estranged son was probably the most compelling part of the whole
novel. His son wants nothing to do with him and uses Decker's best
friend to communicate with him--and hit him up for money.
Decker is a riveting character thrust into a less-than-riveting
story. The book works as a stand-alone even though it's the first of
a new series, but the pieces didn't feel like they fit as well as
they should, even when the disparate plotlines merge towards the end
of the book. It does everything it sets out to do, but the longer it
went the more it felt like a standard cat-and-mouse chase. It was a
pretty good ride, but I don't know how quickly I'll run out to read
the second book in the series.
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