Disorder

Catriona Milton, better known to most as Cat, is a supermodel in London. She has a lavish apartment, a stunning best friend, and a boyfriend who’s very likely going to play for England in the World Cup. Not all is perfect in her seemingly perfect life, however. She suffers from narcolepsy, and even though she’s getting treatment for it, it still affects her day-to-day life. She doesn’t get along with either her mother or her twin sister, and very close to the start of the book, she learns her father has died of a sudden heart attack.

Oh, and a sixteen-fingered man broke into her apartment in the first chapter and threatened her. It’s fair to say this book starts with a bang.

Going back home for her father’s funeral won’t be enough to keep her away from that sudden, impossible intrusion. (I doubt anyone familiar with thriller novels expected it would.) If anything, Cat only finds herself drawn deeper into a labyrinth of lies and deception. Was her father’s death really a heart attack? Can she trust her best friend? Can she even trust her doctor?

On top of being a traditional thriller, there are elements of horror and the supernatural sprinkled throughout. Leaving London for her home town doesn’t mean Cat has seen the last of the sixteen-fingered man. Far from it; he appears again and again, each time with some new bit of information that unsettles Cat’s sense of reality further. As the book goes further and Cat is drawn deeper into a mystery she could not have begun to imagine, she finds that reality itself might be in question. Twisted Shadows culminates in a mind-bending finale that left me amazed.

It also left me a little baffled. The world of this book is as twisted as the shadows that make up the central metaphor of the narrative, but at times I felt as though new elements were added without build-up or payoff. The author is skilled at keeping up a fast pace that will draw along any reader, but at times that pace works against him.

Despite my one complaint, I did enjoy this novel, and I think other thriller lovers will be intrigued by the concept. The author has built up a fascinating world, and even if I wish I could have explored it in more depth, I’m glad I got the chance to step into it.