The Placebo Effect

David Rotenberg

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781476746876
• eBook ISBN: 9781476746913

In this first action-packed novel in The Junction Chronicles, professor and acting coach Decker Roberts has the dangerous gift of detecting the truth—that turns into deadly curse. For years Decker's rare sensory ability to discern the truth proved to be a lucrative sideline to his acting teaching. Only his closest friends know, and he keeps his "synesthete" identity secret from the companies that pay him to tell them if the people they are planning to hire are truthful. But Decker's carefully compartmentalized life starts to fall apart. His house burns down, his credit cards are cancelled, his bank loan is called and his studio is condemned. He realizes that he must have heard something in one of his truth-telling sessions that someone didn't want him to know. Decker has to go on the run and figure out why he's been targeted. There's also a government agent hunting him who seems to know absolutely everything about Decker Roberts' identities, real and false—and other people of "his kind." How will Decker find out which truth was endangering his life? Who betrayed him and revealed all his secrets? Decker needs to find answers quickly, before knowing the truth turns from a gift into a deadly curse.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Prologue
• Chapter 1: The Dangerous Voyage of Mike Shedloski Begins
• Chapter 2: In The Castle of The Enemy
• Chapter 3: Mike Gets the Urge for Going
• Chapter 4: Teacher
• Chapter 5: Yslan Hicks
• Chapter 6: Decker Takes a Job, or Two or Three
• Chapter 7: Yslan at the NSA
• Chapter 8: Orlando, Florida
• Chapter 9: The Further Voyage of Michael Shedloski
• Chapter 10: Pittsburgh
• Chapter 11: Cleveland, Ohio
• Chapter 12: Mac
• Chapter 13: Mike at Decker’s House
• Chapter 14: Henry-Clay’s Decision
• Chapter 15: Nightmares
• Chapter 16: Crazy Eddie
• Chapter 17: The Day After a Fire
• Chapter 18: Arson
• Chapter 19: The End of a Long Day
• Chapter 20: Henry-Clay
• Chapter 21: A Visit to Leavenworth
• Chapter 22: A Noose Tightens
• Chapter 23: Stanstead
• Chapter 24: Charles Cleareyes
• Chapter 25: Return to Manhattan
• Chapter 26: Josh
• Chapter 27: A Little Acting
• Chapter 28: Garden State
• Chapter 29: Mac and Henry-Clay
• Chapter 30: B
• Chapter 31: Decker and Yslan
• Chapter 32: Seth
• Chapter 33: Henry-Clay
• Chapter 34: What’s a Lie
• Chapter 35: Has Anyone Seen Mike?
• Chapter 36: Movements Toward New Jersey
• Chapter 37: Insurance
• Chapter 38: Escape
• Chapter 39: Hiding—A Column of Smoke Within a Fog
• Chapter 40: Yslan in Motion
• Chapter 41: A Cold Day in New York
• Chapter 42: Emerson Remi
• Chapter 43: Semblant Order
• Chapter 44: On the Bus
• Chapter 45: A Cold Night in Toronto
• Chapter 46: Cincinnati, Ohio
• Chapter 47: Cincinnati, Ohio, Two
• Chapter 48: Give Dreadful Note of Preparation
• Chapter 49: Fight in a Synagogue
• Chapter 50: After
• Chapter 51: Home?
• Chapter 52: Crazy Eddie
• Chapter 53: The Rothko Chapel
• Chapter 54: Dream Healing
• Chapter 55: The Junction—End, Full Stop.
• About the Author
• Copyright