Apparitions (Paperback)

by Robert N. Chan (Author)
Key Phrases: selling air, virgin martini, Jed Caplan, New York, Rivka Fieldstone (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Jed Caplan, a lawyer who has written a stack of unpublished novels, is unnerved when he encounters one of his fictional characters in the flesh. Then his most fascinating creation, a brilliant and seductive thrill-killer, takes a romantic interest in him. Intoxicated by their kinky sex, Jed stops caring whether she is a figment of his imagination or a living psychopath. Then she vanishes along with all evidence that she ever existed. Have the pressures of divorce, fatherhood, and his cutthroat law practice driven Jed crazy? Or is he the target of a vengeful conspiracy? He runs from one false lead to another until he discovers the horrifying truth, and realizes he must bend it to his own advantage. By slaying his own demons, Jed reveals the dark underside of the glittering world of the New York legal elite and comes to understand true love.

Apparitions may be the funniest thriller of the millennium, or it might merely be the wisest, sexiest and most provocative book of the century. The critics are split. You decide.

From the Publisher
Offbeat thriller in which a fictional psychopath comes alive to seduce her creator. He revels in the kinky sex, until he uncovers the startling truth.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (June 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595321410
• ISBN-13: 978-0595321414
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,429,401 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Apparitions does Pirandello one better, June 24, 2005

By	Richard Mandel - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In the tradition of Pirandello's famous "Six Chatacters in Search of an Author" and Woody Allen's "Purple Rose of Cairo" Chan's first novel obliterates the line between fact and fiction in this very clever, hysterically funny, and sometimes erotic fantasy. What a great read from a new novelist.

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Put It Down, July 26, 2004

By	Avid Reader (NY) - See all my reviews

It's not War and Peace or Moby Dick. It's shorter and funnier, the characters don't have hard-to-keep-track-of names, and it moves along like a drug-enhanced Olympic sprinter.

Some of the lines are so brilliantly quotable that I found myself making note of them to toss off at cocktail parties without attribution. I can't think of another book that succeeds quite so brilliantly in intertwining humor, romance, kinky sex, excitement and even wisdom. It has it all.

It's the first book in years that I've read twice.

I've gotten sick of lawyers turned writers; Grisham, Turow, Martini and such; but this guy really can write, and, I suspect, can lawyer as well.

Apparitions stars Jed Caplan, a lawyer and "paperback writer," who is plagued by people who look and speak like characters he's developed in his manuscripts. Then he falls in love with Deja, a charming psychopath for whom murder, like sex, is oh so much better with someone you love. It seems that Jed hallucinating. No, a seasoned oncologist has diagnosed him as having a brain tumor. Wait, he's the target of a vengeful conspiracy. On the verge of suicide, he discovers... You'll be surprised, then outraged and then you'll realize that some of your own long-established beliefs are simply wrong.

I loved it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Voice - Thriller, July 30, 2004

By	C. Shelton "reading specialist" (Toms River, NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Don't let Apparitions slip by you! Robert Chan is a new voice, writing with wit, suspense and style. This is a story that will perplex and enthrall you from beginning to end. I loved the idea of a writer's fictional characters coming to life, and what characters they are! Chan pulls it off with a plausible explanation and one of the most creative surprise endings I have encountered. Robert Chan- an author to look for in the future.