Mindfield: A Novel [Hardcover]

William Deverell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1989

This novel is based on the CIA-funded brainwashing experiments, using LSD and electric shock treatment, which were carried out in the late 50s and early 60s. The author has also written "Platinum Blues", which was shortlisted for a Crime Writers Association Arthur Ellis Award.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this uninspired thriller set in Montreal, Deverell (Mecca) combines blackmail and murder and bumbling yet vicious mobsters. Twenty-five years? ago Montreal cop Kellen O'Reilly was a subject in CIA-funded experiments performed by sadistic Dr. Satorias--"the Mengele of the mind"--whose brainwashing technique involved LSD. Although O'Reilly is crippled by horrific flashbacks, he initially refuses to join in a suit brought against Satorias by Sarah Paradis, a gorgeous leftist lawyer. Love and death threats eventually persuade him to join forces. O'Reilly and his partner Raolo generate some heat as wisecracking maverick cops, but the action scenes are standard cinematic car chase and shoot-'em-up fare and the romance between Sarah and O'Reilly is more convenient than explicable. An overworked Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory is dredged up for the unsurprising finale.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

William Deverell’s first novel, Needles, won the $50,000 Seal Award, and, since then, he has published one work of non-fiction, Fatal Cruise, and ten further novels, including Trial of Passion, winner of the Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing and Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. Deverell created the popular CBC Television series Street Legal and recreated its characters in a novel by that title. He is a founding member and past-president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, a member of PEN Canada, the Screen Writers Guild, and has twice been chair of the Writers’ Union of Canada. He winters in Costa Rica and spends his summers on Pender Island in B.C. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: British Amer Pub Ltd; 1st Ed. edition (November 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945167229
• ISBN-13: 978-0945167228
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,335,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the development of torture in the USA, May 12, 2004

By 

Amelie Bart (Seychelles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mindfield (Hardcover)

This is not a thriller but a real story with documented archives that can be found in Montreal.
Are you surprised by what is happening in Irak? Read this book and you will understand how the USA has been developping torture, in this case, in psychiatric hospitals and with prisonners since the beginning of the century.

4.0 out of 5 stars MKUltra, the Mafia and an enjoyable plot, July 30, 2005

By 

Semioticghost "Semioticghost" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mindfield (Hardcover)

The novel is set in a lovingly described Montreal of the 80s, where Kellen O'Reilly is a detective with a buried past. He has been subject to mind control experiments carried out in the name of the CIA in the 60s and the psychological consequences of this experience are coming back to haunt him - or are they? The doctor responsible for the programme is being taken to court, but evidence is strangely sparse; O'Reilly is not willing to become a witness, partly for fear of losing his job and partly because the only memories he has of the crucial three months in question are the terrifying, fragmented flashbacks he suffers with increasing frequency. The tension continues to build as mafia involvement in the funding of experiments come clear and the Family take an interest in hushing up witnesses.

The plot background draws on actual CIA research in their MKUltra project, though the specifics remain a secret; the context is well used in the novel without being overused as a plot device. Enjoyable, fast-paced and with strong characterisations, this is a recommended read.