Simultaneous caught me by surprise with its ingenious take on the serial killer angle with some really mind-bending and jaw-dropping twists and turns.
Federal agent Grant Lukather has a very peculiar job. He works for a department of Homeland Security called Predictive Analytics, specializing in patterns to prevent a terrorist event before it happens. When a recent bombing reveals that a tip was called in by a therapist, he crosses paths with Sarah Newcomb who specializes in helping her patients uncover their “simultaneous-lives” through hypnosis. As Grant reluctantly partakes in a session, he finds the world to be a lot stranger than he could have imagined. With a serial killer on the loose, he’s gonna have to shed his skepticism and embark on a wild ride through the past, present, and future to catch the killer who just might have a better grasp of this whole situation.
Eric Heisserer crafts an intricate narrative with out-of-this-world creativity that makes a home in your mind with all the wondrous possibilities of life beyond our enclosed thinking. It reads as fast and smooth as the best of crime thrillers but it also captivates your mental cogs to digest the grand and complex realities of the world beyond what we understand. This makes for an incredibly powerful and satisfying experience where the thrills are on beat for beat with the exciting new ideas that elevate this narrative from a genre-specific thriller into a kaleidoscope of cool concepts. Add to that the fast-paced high octane action and suspense, and you’ve got the recipe for a book that you just can’t get enough of.
Simultaneous is one of my favorite and most entertaining books for this year and I can’t wait to see where Heisserer takes this story next. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it being adapted for the big screen!
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Purchase Simultaneous
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