Eric Sanderson awakes with his memories erased by a traumatic incident. He finds a note in the foyer of his home, apparently written by himself before his memory loss. “If you are reading this,” the message states, “I’m not around any more. Take the phone and speed dial 1.”
The phone call brings him to a Dr. Randle, who tells Sanderson that his amnesia is recurring, and has happened to him ten times before – all as the result of his mental deterioration following the death of his girlfriend. But Dr. Randle warns him: “In the past, you’ve written and left letters for yourself to be read after a recurrence. I must ask you -- and this is very important now, Eric — under no circumstances, write or read anything like this.”
Soon a letter arrives from the “first Eric Sanderson,” advising him not to trust Dr. Randle. “She is wrong about what is happening to you, Eric. More important, she can neither help nor protect you.” Dozens of these letters come in the following days, each presenting more clues and puzzles. Sanderson is faced with the decision of who to trust, what to believe.
The plot of Steven Hall’s debut novel The Raw Shark Texts unlocks like a Chinese puzzle box, each intriguing twist in the story leading to even greater enigmas and a wider sphere of conspiracy and risks. Soon Sanderson has more to deal with than just the conflict between his doctor and his former self. Every few pages we run into something even stranger than what’s happened before: an odd package with a videotape of a lightbulb flashing on and off, a cell phone call perhaps from his dead girlfriend, an invitation to meet Mr. Nobody in a deserted building, clues found on posters and the tiles of underpasses, and (of course) a deadly shark.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net , which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States, and to Boston.com. Nice work!