Kaleidoscope Book Review

Kaleidoscope by Ryan Mullaney

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Blurb:

Awakened one morning with no memory of the past 24 hours, Keri Crawford finds herself running for her life, embroiled in a conspiracy linking her to the assassination of a high-profile senator campaigning to decriminalize KDS - the most popular new mind-altering substance.

An upstart investigator. Gun-toting mercenaries. A disgraced detective. Everyone wants to know what Keri Crawford knows. But what happens when Keri herself doesn't even know?

Review by Brittany:

This is Mullaney's third book, and I have read and reviewed all of them so far.

As is customary for this author, the reader gets dropped immediately into the action. Keri has no idea what's going on when she wakes up bruised and barefoot in an elevator in her apartment building. A man is chasing her and identifies himself as a detective, but Keri doesn't know whether to be afraid or comforted, so she continues to run and try to piece together what happened the day before.

The book is nonstop action all the way through. Keri is constantly on the run, either from the good guys or the bad guys. She can't tell the difference, and KDS has her feeling a little more paranoid than normal. As Keri struggles to remember what happened and tries to retrieve what she knows, the reader struggles along with her, piecing the story together. There were parts of the book that flashed back to the day that Keri can't remember. The time change in these scenes was a little confusing at first, but once I adjusted it fit nicely into the book.

One thing I loved about this book was Keri's relationship with her dog. Such a funny piece of info in a book like this, but it made Keri seem more like a real person to me. And in the midst of all the chaos of her life, she has this one piece of foundation - her love for her dog.

I also thought the concept of KDS was cool. It's a neat idea, a drug that can give or remove memories, and the way in which it is administered is novel and interesting. Even the packaging was intriguing - different colors indicate different moods. The whole concept of KDS was creative and well done, and I haven't read another book that created a drug in such an interesting way.

Overall, while this one doesn't quite take the place of my favorite of Mullaney's, I really enjoyed it. It's high action and suspense, and it would be a great read for fans of mystery/thrillers.