The Chameleon's Shadow: A Novel [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Minette Walters (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2008

When British lieutenant Charles Acland returns home from Iraq, his serious head injuries are the outward manifestation of a profound inner change: he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or it may be, as his psychiatrist suggests, "the prolonged destruction of a personality."Though previously well adjusted and known as an extrovert, Acland now withdraws into himself. As he begins his recovery in a dismal provincial hospital, crippled by migraines and suspicious of his doctors, he grows uncharacteristically aggressive-particularly against women, and most particularly against his ex-fiancée. Finally, rejecting medical advice to undergo cosmetic surgery-opting, instead, to accept his disfigurement-and cutting all ties to his former life, he moves to London. There, alone and unmonitored, he sinks into a quagmire of guilt and paranoia-until an outburst of irrational, vicious anger brings him to the attention of the local police: they are investigating three recent murders, all of them apparently motivated by the kind of extreme rage that Acland has exhibited.Now under suspicion, Acland is forced to confront the issues behind his desperate existence before it's too late: Has he always been the duplicitous chameleon that his ex-fiancée accuses him of being? Can he control this newly apparent sinister side of his personality? And why, if he truly hates women, does he in the end seek help from a woman-someone as straightforward and self-disciplined as he is unsure and seemingly out of control-to repair the damage to his mind?In its timeliness, its psychological complexity, and its unstoppable suspense, The Chameleon's Shadow is a thriller of the first order.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One look at Lt. Charles Acland's disfigured face and anyone can see that the Iraqi bomb that blew up two of his men has left him profoundly changed—but have his traumatic brain injuries altered the young British army officer's personality enough to make him a murderer? That's the narrative fuse Edgar-winner Walters (The Devil's Feather) lights to ignite this sizzling psychological thriller. She skillfully interweaves strands of Acland's story, including notes from the military psychiatrist treating him, with the hunt for a serial killer who's claimed at least three victims in South London. Then another man is beaten within an inch of his life not long after Acland's move into the neighborhood. When the lieutenant gets into a near-fatal bar fight with a Pakistani stockbroker, Acland's unlikely savior is a 250-pound lesbian weight lifter and doctor named Jackson. Surprisingly, Jackson is also one of the few convincing characters in this plot-propelled tale, a flaw readers may be willing to ignore—until they slam into a contrived denouement well below Walters's usual standard. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Since her debut novel, The Ice House (1992), best-selling author Minette Walters has risen above the standard fare of mysteries and thrillers and produced works rich in character development and psychological suspense. Despite his rage and instability, Charles Acland proves to be a sympathetic, if somewhat shifty, protagonistâ€"no small feat for a writer. Some critics complained of an implausible denouement, and others claimed that the plot became a little unfocused, perhaps because, in the novel’s catalog of social ills, Walters has bitten off slightly more than she can chew. However, Walters’s vivid, convincing characters sustain this powerful and engrossing thriller, which successfully provides a sobering examination of the private and collective damage inflicted by war.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Tantor Media; Unabridged edition (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400135982
• ISBN-13: 978-1400135981
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,573,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Touching and invasion of personal space appear to be real issues for him.", January 10, 2008

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chameleon's Shadow (Hardcover)

As Minette Walter's "The Chameleon's Shadow" opens, twenty-six year old British Lieutenant Charles Acland and his men are patrolling the Baghdad to Basra highway in an armored reconnaissance truck. Suddenly, several roadside improvised explosive devices produce a blast that demolishes their vehicle. Charles, the sole survivor, is horribly disfigured and has lost an eye. When he wakes up in the hospital, he has no memory of the tragedy. A psychiatrist named Dr. Robert Willis comforts the devastated soldier and tries to help him come to terms with the calamity that befell him and his men, as well as with his future as a partially blind and mutilated veteran.

Charles's behavior in the hospital is troubling. He refuses to answer simple questions, swears at his nurses, declines the proffered pain medication, and evinces a visceral and generalized anger especially towards women. Although he makes a remarkable recovery physically, his face is damaged beyond repair and he suffers from severe migraines. He is cold to his parents and seems to suffer from deep-seated feelings of inadequacy and guilt. He claims that he is indifferent to his narcissistic ex-fiancée, Jen Morley, with whom he broke up shortly before he shipped out to Iraq. Charles appears to be incapable of normal social interaction; he lives like a "self-denying ascetic," eating little and exercising compulsively.

Meanwhile, a series of killings in London has the police baffled. Three men, all army veterans, aged fifty-eight, fifty-seven, and seventy-one, were robbed and brutally beaten to death by a frenzied attacker. Detective Superintendent Brian Jones, who heads up the investigation, and his second-in-command, Detective Inspector Nick Beale, believe that the victims knew their assailant. After Charles almost kills someone in a pub fight, he is restrained by a huge woman named Jackson, who is built like a Mack truck, with close-cropped hair, bulging muscles and biker boots. Jackson is a gay and a doctor. Her partner, Daisy, runs the pub that they both own. This formidable woman becomes Charles's unlikely friend in spite of his prickliness and ingratitude, and in many ways, she saves his life. She not only gives him a place to stay, but also uses her own peculiar brand of "tough love" to shape him up and earn his trust. "She's incapable of mollycoddling anyone, tells it how it is, refuses to tiptoe around prissy sensibilities, and gains respect as a result." Later, an elderly pensioner named Walter Tutting is viciously assaulted but survives; since he had argued with Tutting earlier at an ATM machine, the police pick Charles up for questioning.

"The Chameleon's Shadow" is a psychological thriller about the dark impulses that drive people to commit heinous acts. Charles Acland is scarred both psychologically and physically, and he harbors profound antagonism, especially towards women. However, is he capable of killing someone in cold blood? Jackson, for one, has her doubts. Walters introduces some additional key characters, both homeless, as the story progresses: One is a sixteen-year-old runaway named Ben Russell and the other is a middle-aged drunk known as Chalky. These two individuals may know more than they're willing to admit about the serial killer who is targeting middle aged and elderly men. The police, with Jackson's help, do everything they can to get to the bottom of a case that is as bizarre as any that they have ever seen.

Minette Walters is a gifted storyteller and she garners sympathy for the emotionally wounded protagonist. Although the first half of the book is gripping and suspenseful, it falters at the end, when it becomes a bit too weighed down with coincidences and psychobabble. A few far-fetched twists and turns enable the author to wrap up her complicated plot a bit too neatly. In spite of its flaws, "The Chameleon's Shadow" is an engrossing and affecting tale of an injured soldier's horrific journey to hell and back.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Moving out of the shadows, July 11, 2008

By 

J. Cameron-Smith "Expect the Unexpected" (ACT, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chameleon's Shadow (Hardcover)

Lt Charles Acland suffers horrific injuries as a consequence of the roadside explosion of an improvised explosive device whilst on a tour of duty in Iraq. The explosion kills two of his soldiers, leaves him with head injuries and results in the loss of an eye. Lt Acland is repatriated to Britain where, while he is coming to terms with his physical injuries and trying to ignore the psychological consequences, he is also being forced to confront issues from his past.

What is Lt Acland hiding? Could he be the murderer the British police are searching for? He certainly seems to meet many aspects of the profile being constructed. What is the truth of his relationship with Jen Morley, his former fiancée? Why does Lt Acland find it so difficult to relate to women?

Ms Walters provides an engaging psychological thriller, which I read in one sitting. While I worked out some aspects of the puzzle well before the end, I was so caught up in the `how' and `why' that working out who the perpetrator was really didn't matter. In this novel Ms Walters touches on a number of social issues as well as introducing some interesting characters. Aspects of the story do not work well for me but as a whole the novel works fine if the reader doesn't need (or want to) analyse each component.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Acceptable Losses, January 10, 2008

By 

Tom S. "filmfan3" (New York City) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Chameleon's Shadow (Hardcover)

Minette Walters is England's bestselling female crime writer, and her new novel shows us why. It is a gripping, sometimes shocking mystery that reveals much more than the identity of the killer. As with her earlier titles (THE ICE HOUSE, THE SCULPTRESS, THE SCOLD'S BRIDLE, etc.), Walters makes some important points about the world around us while engrossing us in a terrific story.

Lt. Charles Acland is a young man who has been horribly disfigured in the Iraq War. Back in London, his promising military career at an end, he is one of the lost, the "other" victims of war, attempting to readjust to civilian life in a society that has no use for him. His physical disability is accompanied by psychological trauma, manifested by sudden, violent rages, migraine headaches, and an inexplicable aversion to women. Meanwhile, London is being plagued by a series of brutal murders of gay men. When these two stories intersect, the suspense really begins. Is Lt. Acland a monster? He's considered a suspect by the police, and the doctors who have been working with him are unable to explain his odd behavior. A chance meeting with an unusual woman doctor--an enormous, bodybuilding "butch" lesbian who also happens to be the most sensible character in the story--paves the way for a solution to the mystery.

THE CHAMELEON'S SHADOW also includes valid observations about mental illness, homelessness, unlikely friendships, and the real, lasting horrors of war. Acland's scars make him one of the statistics, the "acceptable losses" of military personnel in conflict. In this exciting story, Walters eloquently proves that there's nothing acceptable about it. Highly recommended.