Mosaic [Mass Market Paperback]

John R. Maxim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

The U.S. Government has sanctioned two top-secret scientific experiments overseen by a shadowy figure known for his brutal efficiency. The aim of these twin covert operations is dark, sinister, and potentially devastating: to use Multiple Personality Disorder to create the perfect assassin.

Under orders from a troubled and secretive superior officer, Major Roger Grayson has launched an investigation into the goings-on behind the electrified gates of the Belfair mental health research facility. An operative with the uncanny ability to adapt to virtually any undercover situation, Grayson fears what this assignment will reveal about the nature and humanity of these projects...and about himself. And when his inquest brings an extraordinary woman into his life--an innocent civilian targeted by the government-- the stakes become much higher, as the scope of the secret project becomes more apparent...and more horrifying."The U.S. Government has sanctioned two top-secret scientific experiments overseen by a shadowy figure known for his brutal efficiency. The aim of these twin covert operations is dark, sinister, and potentially devastating: to use Multiple Personality Disorder to create the perfect assassin.

Under orders from a troubled and secretive superior officer, Major Roger Grayson has launched an investigation into the goings-on behind the electrified gates of the Belfair mental health research facility. An operative with the uncanny ability to adapt to virtually any undercover situation, Grayson fears what this assignment will reveal about the nature and humanity of these projects...and about himself. And when his inquest brings an extraordinary woman into his life--an innocentcivilian targeted by the government-- the stakes become much higher, as the scope of the secret project becomes more apparent...and more horrifying.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Leave it to someone as clever as the author of Haven to come up with a crackerjack thriller premise based on MPD (multiple personality disorder). Dr. Norman Zales is the director of Project Chameleon, whose sinister experiment aims to produce a new breed of spies and assassins who can switch personalities from innocent bystander to stone- cold killer in no time. Under the direction of government agent Prentice Teal, Zales is using his female patients (almost all sufferers of MPD are female) as guinea pigs to create "mosaics"Apeople who can consciously control their metamorphoses into alternate personalities. Things come to a head when multitalented undercover agent Major Roger Grayson, who carries the physical and psychic scars of a near-fatal betrayal, is asked by a concerned general to investigate Zales and Teal. When an MPD patient commits a shocking crime, the subsequent coverup leads Grayson to the corrupt center of the experiment, a mental health research center, where young female victims of the insidious psychiatric network fight for their lives. At the heart of the labyrinthine mystery is a 10-year-old with near-miraculous powers and a reclusive woman called Susannah Card, both of whom are natural mosaics. Also participating in the fracas are some vengeful neo-Nazis, creepy fathers who've abused their daughters and then committed them to the institution (getting off scot-free as the girls become "turnips"), and a clever romantic triangle with only two people. Maxim's complex plot bounces from APA lingo to computer hacking clues to the murderous/amorous conversation between one woman's two personalities, culminating in a tense climax. As in Haven, Maxim uses the conventions of comedy and farceAmistaken identity, chance encounters, shifts of allegiance and a deus ex machinaAto exhilarating effect. This is top-notch thriller with a clever premise and equally proficient meditations on identity and character.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A hodgepodge of a thriller about secret government experiments aimed at turning Multiple Personality Disorder into a positive. Major Roger Grayson is terrific at going undercover to penetrate noxious organizations. Among other sociopathic roles, he's played the vicious redneck and the ruthless neo-Nazi to great disruptive advantage. But now he's called upon to accept a sea change of an assignment: helping evaluate the mysterious effort overseen by pop psychologist Norman Zales at Belfair, a sort of gothic hideaway for MPDs. If the government-sanctioned experiments taking place there prove out, the nation will be able to field an enhanced breed of espionage agent. Consider: an agent is captured. She (virtually all MPDs are female) proceeds to frustrate the daylights out of her interrogators by a nifty shift of personality . . . Mata Hari into Orphan Annie, for instance. Or so goes the theory. Grayson is skeptical. He's also not sure he qualifies as the right person to do the evaluating. Nor does he understand why it's so important to the general, his boss, that he take the job. And when he begins to encounter bad guys, he's puzzled by what they're after. Grayson just cant fathom what's really going on at Belfair, or who's being kept there. Hes sent to track down Susannah, a naturalthat is to say, a multiple with push-button control over her contrasting cast of personalitiesbut he's not sure why. And neither is the reader. But after the big, bloody finish, we do know that the survivors are the good guys. Since some of them may be MPDs, however, the difficulty lies in counting noses. You need a scorecard to tell the Emmas from the Veronicas from the Theresas, and so on. And a really strong commitment to want to do it. This capable veteran has done better (Haven, 1997, etc.). -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Avon (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380793547
• ISBN-13: 978-0380793549
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,630,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John R. Maxim was born in Greenwich Village, NYC, educated at NY Jesuit Schools (Xavier and Fordham) played all the street sports and most team sports.
Comes from a family of cops and a few Feds. After school, took up flying, skydiving and dirt-track stock car racing until the Military decided it could do without him. Then went into marketing and advertising. Several awards. Rose to Senior VP at major New York Advertising agencies. Work involved a great deal of international travel. Major hobby back then was sailing.
Always wanted to write, however, and, one night on the bar car, decided to give it a year, succeed or fail. Sold first novel at age 41. Wrote 12 more plus one non-fiction, averaging a year and a half each. Translated into ten languages. Several were optioned for film or TV. Still waiting.
Took up skiing. Many trips to Switzerland and Colorado. With the kids gone, sold our Connecticut house and moved to Hilton Head Island with his beautiful wife, Christine, herself a champion sailor.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars John R. Maxim never fails to please, September 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mosaic (Hardcover)

When some of my favorite writers start getting into their sixth or better book I have found sometimes a formula, or a pattern to their novels. This usually turns me off of the writer. In John R. Maxim's case he is the Energizer Bunny of mystery novels, he keeps on going and going. The themes may be somewhat the same in his books, which is fine, but you're never quite sure about the ending.

Other people reviewing this book call the second half "slow". I must disagree. It all seemed to tie the ends of the book together nicely. Maybe it did not have the flash-bang finish of a Haven or a to-be-continued of the Bannerman series; but it was very essential to bringing everything together.

In the case of this book I felt there really was no clear cut lead character, everyone was responsible for holding up an important end to the story. I enjoyed that aspect tremendously, it was very creative writing. To sum it up; Mr Maxim never ceases to amaze me how he can pull these stories out of his mind and get them down in writing. I quite honestly believe that maybe he is a true Mosaic himself, and each of his "friends" writes a different novel.

While lying back and reading this book I could not help but think that Raymond Lesko would have fit nicely into this storyline :)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tautly Drawn Pyschological Thriller, May 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mosaic (Hardcover)

With his latest novel, "Mosaic," John R. Maxim has once again served up a deliciously entertaining thriller. In "Mosaic," Maxim takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through the dark canyons of the human mind. It's a journey that is fraught with spellbinding twists and turns, government conspiracy, a touch of romance, and in the midst of it all, even a bit of humor. I thought that Maxim's best work had been done in his previous novel "Shawdow Box", however, with Mosaic he has reaffirmed his status as one of America's most entertaining novelists. Clearly, Maxim has done his homework for his latest thriller, as he takes readers down the murky labyrinth of the world of Multiple Personality Disorder where the United States Government is engaged in a secret project aimed at turning MPD patients into perfect assassins. Into this cauldron of suspense Maxim has created a host of richly drawn characters. His two central characters are U.S. Air Force Major Roger Grayson who is a multi-talented undercover agent who has been given the daunting challenge of investigating the secrect government experiments involving Multiple Personality Disorder. Susannah Card is a beautiful and mysterious woman who is a natural "Mosaic" --- a MPD sufferer who has the ability to totally control her different personalities. As the story unfolds, Maxim sets up a unique relationship between Grayson and Susannah in which he offers the reader a glimpse into what it might be like for a person to have several different personalities inside his mind. This is a wonderful read that, from the outset, grabs the reader by the lapels, hauls him out of his seat, and drags him down a path of nail-biting suspense.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars READ MOSAIC AND ENJOY!, April 6, 2000

By 

[e-mail] April 6, 2000 (Chevy Chase, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mosaic (Mass Market Paperback)

As usual, John R. Maxim delivers again with Mosaic! I take issue with a reviewer who claims this book is riddled with inaccuracies concerning MPD. To get information on ANY subject, I read non-fiction, not fiction. I read fiction for just what John R. Maxim delivers every time - FUN - suspense - escape. He can be relied upon to take me away from the office and home for the time it takes to read his books, and I treasure every minute. He is an amazing writer and it excites and thrills me to begin each of his novels. I loved Mosaic and suggest you read the review from Massachusetts May 26, 1999 because, if I could write that good its what I would say.