The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Black Mirror in this new release from Matthew Mather, a million-copy international bestseller translated in over twenty languages worldwide.A new breed of predator hunts on the streets of New York.Chased by a detective whose gift and curse is eyes that see things only she can.“Incredible detective Delta Devlin is a franchise character worth losing your head … Delta Devlin is a franchise character worth losing your head over.’” —Scott Sigler, #1 New York Times bestselling author
After a near-fatal car crash, Royce Vandeweghe wakes up to find he’s one of the first patients to undergo a radical new medical procedure: a full-body transplant. Convalescing and suffering from waking nightmares, he answers the door at his Long Island home and meets Delta Devlin, a New York detective. She sees things nobody else can, visions created by a rare mutation in her eyes.
Roy becomes Devlin’s prime suspect in a string of grisly murders. The mysterious Dr. Danesti, who performed the surgery, together with Roy’s estranged wife Penny, do their best to shield him–but it becomes obvious it’s not for his sake. Desperate for answers, Roy tracks down the grieving widow of the man whose body he now inhabits.
Out of time, and perhaps his mind, Roy leads Devlin on a spiraling chase through a global underworld of black-market body parts and billionaires where nothing can stand in the way of living forever–not even death itself.
FROM THE BACK COVER
The Dreaming Tree for the first time introduces police officer Delta Devlin, a detective who can literally see things nobody else can. She has a condition called tetrachromacy, a rare real-world genetic mutation only recently discovered that endows a superhuman ability to see tens of millions of colors invisible to normal humans.
“Relentless pacing, well-developed main characters, and plethora of bombshell plot twists.”–Publishers Weekly
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Future medical breakthroughs maybe not so far in the future
Royce Lowell-Vandeweghe just woke from a coma. He finds he was in a terrible accident and his head was transplanted onto a donor body. (Oh, and he comes from an old money family).
Detective Devlin with the Suffolk County Police Department gets involved with many of the puzzle pieces. I liked her unique ability of seeing the world around her which actually helps her with her job.
This medical thriller touches on medical ethics questions, transplanted body parts that are sold by the poor from third world nations, a serial killer, the haves and the have-nots, and more than a touch of the bizarre.
I enjoyed this book. It took a while to get into, kind of an info dump at the beginning, but then the pace picked up and pieces started fitting together and it was then an interesting, exciting book until the final page.
The characters were well developed. The story had a Frankenstein feel to it, which the author admits was intentional in the afterword to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the original Frankenstein story. The author also said in the afterword that many of the ideas presented in the book are true – in today’s world.
Cool idea. It could have been tightened up a bit but still a very readable medical thriller with a side order of serial killer.
When Royce wakes in the hospital, he learns that he was involved in a near-death car accident. He also learns that he has become a guinea pig of sorts. He’s one of the first people to undergo a radical new procedure … a full body transplant. The only thing left of Royce is his head which has been attached to someone else’ s body.
Recovery is a nightmare for Royce. The hallucinations, daytime nightmares leaving him looking for answers. He suspects that his lower body once belonged to a vicious serial killer.
New York Detective Delta Devlin sees things that most people don’t… visions created by a natural mutation to her eyes. When she meets Royce, she automatically takes in that the colors between body and head don’t match. She also suspects that Royce has a hand in a string of disappearances and abominable murders.
Out of time, and perhaps his mind, Royce tumbles through a hallucinogenic underworld of black-market body parts and billionaires where nothing can stand in the way of living forever—not even death itself
Part science fiction with a little horror thrown in, as well as the author’s research into genetically edited humans along with the lucrative trade in transplant organs make the plot of THE DREAMING TREE intricate, laced with twists and turns as the reader gets lost in Royce’s slowly deteriorating mind. The characters are deftly drawn amid the swirl of mystery. The conclusion was surprising and unexpected. This is a slight cliff hanger leading to the next in this series.
Many thanks to the author / Blackstone Publishing / Netgalley for the digital copy of this technothriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Fans of Michael Crichton’s, and Stephen King’s, this is a book for you! If you read the blurb and it piques your interest, don’t hesitate: THE DREAMING TREE is a fantastic thriller!
Royce Vandeweghe gets a full-body transplant, and all hell breaks loose! The book is very intriguing right from the start, the pace is brisk and never falters. The story gets better as it goes along, chilling and surreal. However, the most chilling part of all might be the author’s notes at the end – THE DREAMING TREE in Real Life…
This is the first book in a series featuring Detective Delta Devlin. I found interesting though that the character of Royce is just as prominent, if not more. I thought it was a very clever way to introduce Delta and the series. The characters are well-rounded, and character development is outstanding. The writing is crisp and clear; it’s a real page-turner and it’s going to be a fabulous an innovative series with a relatable and engaging heroine.
Mr. Mather’s research is extremely thorough; the task must have been staggering! I only wish he would be as meticulous with the French he chose to use: one sentence should have read “Est-ce qu’on peut jouer au poker?”, and it’s “tu vas” not “tu va”. Besides that, there were only 4 or 5 very minor typos. I know, I’m always complaining about something… But seriously, it’s an amazing book, very well written, and im looking forward to reading more Matthew Mather books; I was very much impressed!
A Mind-Bending, Emotion-Stirring, Series-Launching Medical Thriller
“This is definitely one for the weird books.”
So said the partner of the book’s protagonist, Detective Delta Devlin, after they had solved the case. And I’d have to agree. From full-body transplants, to hunting trips for celebrities’ excrement, to “oil changes” for the wealthy—I’ll let you read the book, if you don’t follow those references—The Dreaming Tree is a wild ride between recent advances and imminent breakthroughs in medical science with a bit a pure fiction thrown into the mix. And author Matthew Mather makes it really tough to know just which of those you are reading at any given point in the story.
Of course, in dealing at the bleeding edge of medical science, societal and ethical questions appear at every turn in the plot, not as academic questions, but as part of a baffling, sometimes surreal mystery. When is someone dead? If we can grow parts, why not an entire body? And similarly, your emotions will sustain some collateral damage from treading this ground. References to body-part harvesting among the helpless and the brutally poor are particularly gut wrenching.
Within this backdrop of science vs. fiction, ethics, and emotion, Mather inserts at least two, rather dramatic twists into his storyline. They are revelations that, while not new to frequent readers of mystery and thrillers, will cause you to reframe all that you thought you knew about the head with a new body. Mather’s use of this technique, however, leads me to a minor quibble. The last twist comes so late that despite the author speeding through the threads of the tale, the reader doesn’t have time for the new mindset to gel. Basically, the end feels a bit rushed and some of the threads feel like they are still dangling.
No review of The Dreaming Tree would be complete without mention of Mather’s new, series protagonist, Delta Devlin. Besides having a melodic, alliterating name that describes her roots—Delta for her mother from the South, Devlin for her Irish father—she’s a tetrachromat. She has four color receptors in her eyes, rather than the three that most of us have. That visual capability lets her spot subtle changes in a person’s coloration, say, when he/she is lying. Maybe this is a bit of a stretch of what a tetrachromat can do, or maybe not, but it adds a dimension to an already likeable character. I’ll be watching for book 2 in the series.