Publisher's Weekly
British writer Gallagher follows his crime/horror novel Valley of Lights with this tepid thriller centering on the illegal drug-testing activities of a multinational pharmaceutical firm called Risinger-Genoud. After having been accidentally knocked unconscious in the company labs, Englishman Jim Harper, a teacher in a Swiss private school, is secretly injected with an experimental amphetamine-like drug, which at first seems ineffective. Eventually, however, he is restored to consciousness--and begins to experience harrowing nightmares that threaten his sanity. Risinger-Genoud takes steps to cover up its involvement, dispatching a attractive female employee to keep tabs on Harper, now hospitalized in London. Escaping her clutches, Gallagher falls into a trap engineered by Rochelle Genoud, daughter of the company's founder. Unfortunately, Gallagher does not convince the reader of Harper's imminent danger or that the conglomerate's intentions for the drug are more than casually sinister. Though there are a few good chase scenes, and some of Harper's nightmares are suitably menacing, the novel doesn't achieve any momentum.