The Dance of The Pheasodile

 

Tim Roux: The Dance of the Pheasodile. Night Publishing (UK) through CreateSpace, May 2010. Paperback and Kindle editions.

In the opening scene, architect Keith McGuire wakes up to find himself swinging upside down outside the plate glass window that wraps around the lawyer’s office where his wife is a partner. It is freezing cold and he’s bumping up against the glass. His wife and her coworkers, aghast, are staring at him and snapping photos. He has no idea how he got here, who is flying the chopper, who his tormentors are, or why they are tormenting him. He is, as he says in the opening sentence “in a bit of a predicament.” Dangling upside down and naked under a helicopter flown by unknown maniacs is only part of the story. Looking up at his body, he sees the body of a stranger. His body is long, lean and well-muscled; this one is stubby, hairy and out of shape.

I was hooked. I couldn’t put the book down.

Successful architect Keith McGuire has a happy life with wife Chrissie and their two children Ella and Mark for fourteen years … until he goes in for a hypnotherapy session to try and recover some childhood memories. Then the fun begins. Emerging from his hypnotherapy session, he finds himself in the office of a therapist named Brenda Starbright in Hull, a northern city where he’s never been. Worse, he is no longer Keith McGuire; he is Harry Walker, a thug, ne’er-do-well, con man and nemesis to his wife Fran, son Tommy and sister Kathy. What has happened to Keith? And the real Harry? Has Harry …? The thought of Harry inhabiting his body and his home and job gives him the chills.

Part romance, part paranormal crime thriller, it is a wonderful read. There are laugh-out-loud scenes in this book, some chilling ones and some very poignant ones. I won’t say more, because I don’t want to give too much away in this intriguing, funny and well-told story.

 I give it a AAA+