The Book: The Living Image
The Author: P. M. Richter
My Review:
Only on rare occasions are we fortunate enough to run across a thoroughly new and original story. P. M. Richter has written one. It caught me off guard in the opening sentence and dared me to enter a world that is both frightening and deadly. Perhaps only P. M. Richter could have imagined such a twisted and tormented world.
She wrote: “Sabrina’s eyelids fluttered in the midst of a dream in which a tiny maniacal form was torturing her, fiendishly stabbing about her head with needles. It was so vivid and frightening she tried to awaken, like you can sometimes do in a shocking nightmare, but her body was paralyzed. She was blind. She couldn’t move.”
I was trapped now. P. M. Richter had captured my imagination and had no intention of letting it go. Was it a dream? Or was it really a nightmare? Who was Sabrina and why is someone doing such terrible things to her?
She opens her eyes and feels as though she is looking into a mirror. She is staring into her own face, but it belongs to another. Sabrina, meet Eve. She is your exact double. She is like you in every way. She has your face, your body, and your mind. There is, however, one exception. Eve is a robot. Eve is your clone. She knows what you think. She feels what you have experienced. She’s in tune with your passions and fears, your hopes and worries. And she may be the most valuable, most sought-after commodity in the world.
Intelligence agencies will do whatever it takes to own Eve and the technology that has come so close to creating another human being. The CIA is after her. So are the Russians. And the Japanese aren’t far behind. There is only one problem. No one can detect any difference between Sabrina and Eve. If the wrong one dies, it’s nothing more than collateral damage.
The race has begun in a tightly knit story of betrayal, of survival. What will happen to Sabrina and Eve? Can they escape? Can Sabrina protect her clone from a myriad of spies and greedy lawyers who always seem to be one lone step behind them? She fights as though she is protecting herself, and perhaps she is. After a while, she does not feel any difference between herself and her living image.
A very talented novelist, P. M. Richter has written a novel that can be described as part science fiction, part fantasy, and all thriller. Looking for a novel not quite like anything you have ever read before? Look no farther than Living Images.