Book Description

When David Collier commits a brutal atrocity during his year-long tour of duty in Vietnam, he's scarred by a moment of violence he will never forget. But for Collier the horror is just beginning. Having returned to civilian life in the America of 1974, Collier undergoes therapy with a Veterans Administration psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Rogers, who tries to help him recover from a lingering psychological injury that will later come to be known as "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." During the therapy sessions, David wrestles with the rage and resentment he still feels toward his ex-girlfriend, Laura Strasnick, who broke off their planned marriage while David was fighting for his life and his country in Vietnam. As the therapy continues, Collier begins to reveal a dark and disturbing secret. Somehow, the atrocity committed in Vietnam has left him with the ability to invade other people's sleep. Is this "gift" the result of psychological trauma...or is it actually an ancient curse which was visited upon Collier during the war crime he committed in order to save a fellow-soldier's life? Regardless, this new-found power is real and getting stronger. And Collier cannot resist the temptation to use it. His first victim will be the terrified Laura Strasnick. Having moved to Atlanta to pursue a promising career as an advertising executive, Laura will soon begin to experience a series of hideous nightmares in which she screams desperately for help that never arrives. Increasingly afraid to go to sleep and caught up in a growing panic, Laura consults a sleep therapist and Ph.D. researcher, Alix Cassidy, who's hiding a frightening secret of her own. Alix does her best to help, but to no avail. As Alix and Laura struggle together, David's unprincipled and unethical psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Rogers, has discovered the tormented soldier's ability to crash into other people's sleep and then control their dreams. Instead of using his discovery of "Somnambulistic Telepathy" to help David and Laura, however, Dr. Rogers decides to exploit them both...thus setting the stage for a frantic showdown in which Alix will struggle to rescue Laura before David finds a way to destroy her life forever. Based on years of research on the dynamics of human sleep and dreaming, "The Morpheus Conspiracy" is a fast-moving, high-octane thriller that explores the devastating psychological legacy of the Vietnam War.