Petey's
Fiction Review
Flashback
by
Gary Braver
Jack Koryan returns to the beach cottage where his mother, a
woman he scarcely remembers, met an untimely death during a
storm 30 years earlier. While swimming, Jack encounters a school
of rare poisonous jellyfish whose toxic stings cause him to
lapse into a six-month long coma.
Upon
awakening, Jack discovers that the jellyfish toxin has enhanced
his memory. He has flashbacks of pleasant childhood experiences,
but there's a recurring flashback—an almost-but-not-quite-remembered
event that exists just beyond the borders of perfect recall—that's
so disturbing and darkly terrifying that it leaves him trembling
in fear.
Jack
soon comes to the attention of René Ballard, a pharmacologist
who's part of a team researching the efficacy and safety of
Memorine, a new but-not-yet approved drug for treating
Alzheimer's disease, a drug based on the same jellyfish toxin
responsible for Jack's memory improvement. Clinical studies
on Alzheimer's patients have indicated substantial memory recovery
among most patients, but an unusually high percentage of these
experience some type of flashback event.
Sometimes,
flashbacks cause elderly patients who are part of the clinical
trials to become stuck in the past; for some, flashback leads
to disastrous consequences. Affected patients pose hazards to
others and to themselves.
With
billions of dollars at stake, there are those who want to fast-track
FDA approval of Memorine, regardless of the risks involved.
They will falsify data, perjure themselves, do whatever it takes—even
commit murder—to ensure that Memorine makes it to market.
It's up to Jack and René to uncover the truth and expose
treachery, lies and deception that date back 30 years.
In
real life, Flashback
author Gary Braver goes by the name Gary Goshgarian. He has
five previous critically acclaimed suspense novels to his credit,
among them Atlantis
Fire, The
Stone Circle and Gray
Matter. A Northeastern University English professor,
he teaches courses in literature, creative writing and popular
culture. He and his family make their home in Arlington, Massachusetts.
Visit
Gary's Web site at www.garybraver.com
Review
by Phil Hanson
Click
on the title to order your copy of Flashback.
Copyright
© 2006 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.
