Killer Dreams

What began as a research project to create a better sleeping pill has escalated into a conspiracy to take over the world's population through mind control. Jennifer Van Dyck offers a spirited narration of a lively thriller whose characters include a doctor and her young son, a tortured killer using his powers for good, a smarmy and demented lab owner, a deranged Army general, and a Scottish laird. This last showcases Van Dyck's ear for accents as she holds nothing back in portraying the colorful character. While the plot may be predictable and the characters shallow, Van Dyck's performance turns a satisfactory book into a great audio experience. R.L.L. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

April 17, 2006
Bestseller Johansen (On the Run
), in her latest thriller full of heavy-breathing romance, turns to mind-control of the Manchurian candidate variety, a state induced by the chemical REM-4 and mysterious sleep-manipulation methods guaranteed to turn regular folk into killer zombies. It promises to be a lucrative technology, as one of the heroes in the novel predicts: "Mind control is just too tempting not to attract the scumbags of the world." The head scumbag is Robert Sanborne of Sanborne Pharmaceuticals, whose goal is to perfect the REM-4 program so he can sell it to the world's evildoers. The heroine, Sophie Dunston, a leading sleep researcher and the original inventor of REM-4, falls hard for Matt Royd, a former zombie who has come to his senses and is trying to kill Sanborne. Royd and Sophie, forced by circumstances to be allies, begin by hating each other and then—no surprise—fall wildly in lust and love. Johansen offers nothing new, but her many fans will overlook a rather improbable premise and be happy with a familiar cast of characters (many from the author's other novels), familiar situations and familiar outcomes.