Lucidity

Lucidity: David Carnoy

Would you take a huge cash award in order to uncover what happened to someone who disappeared over twenty years ago? Would you take another sum of money to uncover where he husband might be and if he was the killer or the person that made her disappear? Hank Madden of the Menlo Park PD is about to handle the case of his life even though he retired from the force. When approached by a billionaire to look into this old cold case of Stacy Walker who disappeared and whose body was never recovered or found will he accept the terms of the deal and keep his benefactor a secret? Will he also keep the fact that he is hunting down her husband as well as a secret too? Finding out about a man named Frank Marcus who wrote a book about this case, has many files that he might or might not share when approached by Hank, will he cooperate and help him do what many would be the unthinkable and dig up a backyard where Stacy might be buried?

In the present we learn about Max Fremmer/AKA book doctors living in Manhattan on the Upper West Side whose client Candace Epstein’s book he is editing and hoping to publish. Learning from an NYPD police officer that his client was pushed in front of a moving car on Central Park West with little hope of survival might do more than bring him under the scrutiny of the police. We also learn about the Lucid Dreaming Center and meet its creators where people are helped and learn to control their dreams. Would you want to take part in your dreams and be able to control the outcome?
What happens when Max and Hank connect and they decide to form an unholy alliance to solve not only two murders but the mystery behind the Lucidity center? Would you want to be able to connect more to your dreams and be able to control them? As we learn more about Hank Shelby and his request that Madden dig up the yard where Stacy might be buried we meet rock star JJ and Madden’s law partner’s crush on him as we learn about his past and why he is in the house in the present. But, things take on a different turn when Braden the creator of the Lucidity Center has someone strong arm Freemer to come and see him hoping to regain his advance to Candace for her book. Things get dicey and each one recounts a Lucid dream claiming they were in control of the events as they discuss how they might consider working together to give him his fifty thousand back and then help put away money for her daughter. Things are not always what they seem and Freemer knows that this business is not on the up and up and realizes that his friend Morton is defending the supposed homeless man that pushed her in front of a car. The lawyer is doing it pro bono and has a team of police detectives and others trying to help Ronald Darby added in he is able to convince someone who knew him in college to speak to a reporter in order to give him a more positive past. But, will any of this help and just what is the Lucidity Center?

While the detective recorded and filmed digging up the backyard, Freemer got a tour of the Lucidity Center and then a date with Rochelle who is Braden’s muscle believe it or not. What the detective finds is something that you will not expect but leads back to a friend he had in school that buried things in order to create a time capsule. Just what he finds and digs up will not help him find Stacey but JJ is fascinated with one find and the rest is given along with a story to Hal Shelby who is funding this entire thing. But, stating that he has six months to come through, Shelby wants it sooner and something in the contract that Carolyn did not see could shorten the time he has to find Stacey and Ross. As Freemer and Rochelle talk about REM and drinking and how they relate to having Lucid dreams. Interesting and quite remarkable as you hear the conversation and begin wondering if people really do experience situations where they take part in their dreams and experience fantasies that they have envisioned and then the entire dream disappears. So, how does he wind up in the hospital and why do his son and Morton tell him he wanted to die and kill himself? Why is he in the psych ward of St. Lukes Hospital? As we hear him talk more about what he thinks happened he relates that Rochelle probably drugged him and that he was at a club but the end result the author shares several Lucid dreams that Fremmer envisions but did they really happen? Was it the fifty thousand dollars that caused Braden to have her drug him or was it the book? Next we meet Stacey’s daughter, Catherine and we learn something about her relationship with her parents but she won’t even budge when asked to speak with her father’s brother. Hidden lies and secrets all around and what really happened to Stacey and did Ross really kill her and why?

Seeing Candace in the hospital Fremmer tries to understand her words and something comes out that sets him on a new direction leading him to Madden. The phone made and the demands heard will they work together to unravel this mystery each one doing it not so much to find Stacey and her killer but for money. Is Shelby behind the press release or news article that he told Madden never to reveal his source or where his money was coming from? Is this a way to get him to move faster? A lucid dream is a dream during which the person dreaming is aware of the dream. During this dream the dreamer may be able to exert some degree of control over the dream, characters, environment and the narrative or dialogue. As we learn more about Fremmer the reader gets to experience his lucid dreams yet he does wind up in the hospital after one but how and why? The Lucidity center is supposedly helping people to experience

As the two cases come into one Madden is called in by Detective Thomas Chu to go over what he knows and although he has the information on a flash drive from Candace’s computer and a video of who pushed her in front of a car the startling revelation at the end will surprise readers. Betrayals, abuse, deceit, lie and manipulations as someone close to the investigation wants to hide a stark truth. As Fremmer approaches Catherine, Stacey’s daughter one more time and reveals something that might bring her around to confess what she knows about her parents someone enters the scene and things are about to become more dangerous. An ending with twists, revelations and an offer that someone might not be able to refuse as author David Carnoy creates a surprise-ending equal to that of the master Alfred Hitchcock. With Fremmer deciding on his future, Madden having to decide where to go next the ending will not only surprise readers but change it all for both Fremmer and Madden. What really happened to Ross? Who killed him and why? What about Stacey who wanted her dead? Some endings are really beginnings find out why when you read this mystery thriller and decide: Would you want to experience a Lucid Dream but one thing is for sure when you read the ending it will definitely help you the reader understand and have a clear and easy understanding of a situation that is completely intelligible, comprehensible and logic in other words: free from obscurity and easy to understand: LUCIDITY: FIND OUT MORE WHEN YOU READ THIS THOUGHTPROVOKING NOVEL?