Mindfield

by William Deverell

Book Overview

A psychological time bomb is triggered in Kellen O'Reilly as he begins to experience disturbing " flashbacks" to his unresolved and turbulent past. It is winter in Montreal. Dr. Satorius, head of Coldhaven Manor, a psychiatric clinic just outside the city, is taken to court by former patients. He is accused of conducting unorthodox drug-testing and brainwashing experiments there twenty-five years earlier. The much-publicized trial and the full-scale police investigation into a series of recent murders are among events which draw Kellen O'Reilly and the dynamic and Sexy Sarah Paradis - trial counsel for Satorius's victims - into an ever-widening web of intrigue and corruption involving the CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the police force itself. As events in Kellen O'Reilly's own past become linked with uncovering secret government-funded psychochemical experiments, tables are turned and Kellen is running for his life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0945167229
• ISBN13: 9780945167228
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: British American Publishing
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.

Customer Reviews

MKUltra, the Mafia and an enjoyable plot

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.

the development of torture in the USA

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.