THE WRONG REFLECTION

Plucky young heroine, otherworldly hero, grasping industrialist—such is the cast in this offbeat, entertaining British thriller.

Sandra Murray doesn’t want to stop. The road’s dark, lonely, she’s tired, and, anyway, maybe her eyes are playing tricks on her. But Sandra, being Sandra, has no real choice: she does stop, and as a result saves the life that changes her own life forever. Having pulled the driver to safety from his half-submerged car, she administers CPR, then makes sure he gets to a hospital. On recovering consciousness, however, Paul Anderson insists that he isn’t Paul Anderson, though the photo on his driver’s license, as well as on other papers in his wallet, argues to the contrary. More than that, Sir Philip Lloyd, CEO of huge, powerful, multinational Stellar Research, where Anderson serves as Marketing Director, unhesitatingly identifies him. Arriving at the hospital the following day to check on her rescuee, Sandra finds him terrified but unable to tell her why. Nor is he able to tell her who he is if he’s not Anderson. Nevertheless, Sandra believes in him, just as she believes he is right to be wary of Sir Philip, whose arrogance has been enough to arouse her own distrust. In due course, she becomes convinced that Sir Philip wants something from the frightened amnesiac she’s become attached to, something he tried to get the night of the accident and might well be willing to kill for the next time. She’s right, of course. But when she learns the truth, it’s at first terrifying to her, too. And then wonderful in a Close Encounters sort of way.

Versatile Bradshaw (The Sand-Reckoner, p. 204, etc.) turns from historical fiction to ring the changes on star-crossed lovers who, in this case, are fresh, consistently interesting, and head a cast much more empathic than usual for the thriller genre.