SOUL TRAVELER

A woman once deliberately inflicted with transplanted memories by a treacherous researcher faces high-tech bodily possession by a dead man.

The Goddards (Living Memories, 2013), husband-and-wife authors, here birth a sequel to their debut borderline-sci-fi novel, with intrigue and nastiness above and beyond the call of science at the University of Mississippi. Heather McHann was once cruelly turned into a human “guinea pig” by her now-dead boyfriend, Gregory “Dex” Poindexter, a college researcher using cutting-edge computer techniques. He unethically manipulated human subjects in treating trauma and PTSD by transferring memories from one person to another. The method led to “infective” mind control and crimes committed by the helpless Heather at Dex’s behest. Three years later, despite her negative past experiences, personal trainer Heather is fascinated with the science and starts working part time in the Sleep and Memory Unit at Ole Miss. She re-encounters previous subjects of Dex’s malice—chiefly troubled teenager Samantha Mathis. But Heather also gets accosted and threatened by a suspiciously tweedy assailant in corporate shakedowns aimed at her and Samantha by big pharma, which is prodding into Dex’s potentially profitable secrets. But there’s more. Heather discovers a data device left by Dex in anticipation of his demise with a video file labeled “entire essence.” Displaying the poor sense exhibited by teens in those slasher movies who go wandering into dark places alone, she views the encoded images, setting the stage for a twist on the theme of spiritual possession. The Ole Miss campus turns out to be an atypical and refreshing locale for genre fiction. The authors infuse their thriller with a discernible Christian worldview, though it is less preachy than readers might expect. Characters argue about evidence for the existence of souls, say grace before meals, and seldom spout anything that goes beyond mild profanity. Sexual suggestiveness stays PG, if even that (no kinky stuff for a premise based on a bad guy reviving in a 29-year-old beauty’s gym-toned body). Samantha keeps having encounters with “Benji,” a sort of holy fool nobody else seems able to perceive, who quotes Bible references and warns against evil in a Yoda/Gollum/Clarence the angel manner. Science and technology speculation might have been served in the heady doses that bestselling novelist Michael Crichton generated in his books, but the authors pull away from that. (And they are notably ahead of Crichton in the characterizations, with the exception of the noncorporeal Dex, who remains a pretty pallid rotter.) Only in the twist finale does the storyline echo such memorable sci-fi short fiction entries on similar themes, like Brian W. Aldiss’ “Let’s Be Frank” and Robert Bloch’s grim “Forever and Amen,” sharply turning away from the virtuous stuff offered before it.

A Christian-leaning science thriller that stays on the mild side until it produces a sudden sting.