It's difficult to review Adam Fawer's first novel without bringing up the name of Stephanie Williams. Fawer and Williams were good friends and fellow writers. When, at the age of thirty, Williams was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the two friends made a verbal contract to focus on writing their first novels. Williams wrote when she could, crafting the funny and ultimately poignant story, Enter Sandman. Fawer, the former COO of About.com, dropped everything, including his career, and dove into work on the psychological thriller, Improbable.
David Caine is a gambler. He gambles at cards and life, always with the belief that his almost savant ability to determine probabilities will keep him afloat. What he doesn't factor into his equation are the devastating epileptic seizures that have been arriving with increased frequency. Up until now, they've hardly impaired his visits to some of the seediest underground poker clubs in New York City, where he's used his probability calculations with cunning and for profit. Up until now.
David Caine is a gambler. He gambles at cards and life, always with the belief that his almost savant ability to determine probabilities will keep him afloat. What he doesn't factor into his equation are the devastating epileptic seizures that have been arriving with increased frequency. Up until now, they've hardly impaired his visits to some of the seediest underground poker clubs in New York City, where he's used his probability calculations with cunning and for profit. Up until now.
David Caine is in the highest-stakes games of his life. Even with the ominous aura of a seizure all around him-fetid smells, labored breathing, cloudy judgment-he pushes himself to continue. Moments before he's felled by the worst seizure of his life, he misjudges the cards, stays in the game, and loses it all.
With an overwhelming debt hanging over him-and a team of goons, hired by the Russian mob, hunting him down to extract justice-David decides to make fast money by entering into a medical pact with a scientific devil. He becomes the guinea pig for a drug that takes him to the brink of sanity and causes him to question just how far into the abyss he's fallen. And David knows about abysses: his twin brother, Jasper, has been in and out of mental hospitals for a good part of his life.
With an overwhelming debt hanging over him-and a team of goons, hired by the Russian mob, hunting him down to extract justice-David decides to make fast money by entering into a medical pact with a scientific devil. He becomes the guinea pig for a drug that takes him to the brink of sanity and causes him to question just how far into the abyss he's fallen. And David knows about abysses: his twin brother, Jasper, has been in and out of mental hospitals for a good part of his life.
As the drug takes hold, David begins to experience powers that frighten him, but thrill the scientists responsible for developing the drug. Is he really able to prophecy his future, or is he as delusional as his brother? And what about Nava, who professes to be his friend? Is she a Russian spy or a CIA assassin? And she's being followed as well, so what's to make him believe that she's not part of this conspiracy?
Torn between reality and what he assumes is a drug-induced fantasy, David Caine finds himself the prey of gangs, scientists, and the United States government. Amassing his strongest resources-his intellect, his will to survive, and his love for his brother-David struggles to set himself free from the predators, while freeing his brother from a lifetime of mental illness.
Improbable is one of those books you put down only because your alarm is set for 6 AM and if you don't go to sleep now, you'll be wasted in the morning. But wait, is that a sore throat you're starting to feel?
(Afternote: Stephanie Williams died shortly after her novel was printed. She was able to experience the joy of holding it in her hands.)
Torn between reality and what he assumes is a drug-induced fantasy, David Caine finds himself the prey of gangs, scientists, and the United States government. Amassing his strongest resources-his intellect, his will to survive, and his love for his brother-David struggles to set himself free from the predators, while freeing his brother from a lifetime of mental illness.
Improbable is one of those books you put down only because your alarm is set for 6 AM and if you don't go to sleep now, you'll be wasted in the morning. But wait, is that a sore throat you're starting to feel?
(Afternote: Stephanie Williams died shortly after her novel was printed. She was able to experience the joy of holding it in her hands.)
