AT THE RISK OF RECOVERY

After waking up from a drug-fueled bender, an amnesiac is plagued by violent memories and a sinister voice in his head, drawing him dangerously close to an active serial killer in Morgan’s SF/horror novel.

A startling prologue features a written confession from a man named Adrian Darrow, who claims to have murdered multiple people. The action switches to and remains with a different man, Aran Moreau, who wakes up on a pier in the year 2354 with no memory of recent weeks. As he retraces his steps to his apartment in the city of Sahm Avana, he learns that he recently quit his job as a banker at Maritime Union and has changed his abode; he also discovers that he has an alarmingly large sum in his bank account. As the days pass, disturbing scenes appear in his mind’s eye, as does a vicious voice that guides him toward clues about a string of murders. As Moreau moves among a series of local haunts, including a dive bar, a sex worker’s apartment, and his psychologist’s office, the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. As it turns out, Darrow is no stranger to him; he first entered Moreau’s life at the psychiatric ward at a hospital known as Sahm Avana West, and, somehow, the memories that Moreau is experiencing have arisen from “imprinted visualizations.” Although Moreau is relieved that he isn’t a serial killer, his own life proves to be somewhat empty and characterized by dubious morals; for example, his old circle included money-obsessed misogynist Jonathan Yates, whose friendship is effectively a hangover from Moreau’s childhood. He has conversations with other friends, and he responds to revelations about his old self by trying to carve out a better way of life.

Some of the secondary characters, such as Yates, feel one-note, but others, such as bartender Mitsuko and unemployed engineer Maddy, offer Moreau a place to escape the chaos, albeit momentarily. The setting of Sahm Avana is a worthy backdrop for the action; it’s a hard town in which everyone seems to be hustling. It has only a few “oxygen regeneration sites” remaining, where artificial orchids cover the “mechanical metal monstrosity underneath.” This is an apt image, as many of the characters’ outward appearances strikingly contrast with their motives. For example, Edy Mab, a gossip blogger, continues to break news of the murders in the name of public interest and safety, but her smug delight at revealing these dark details clouds her journalistic intent. Mitsuko, who runs his local dive, is a no-nonsense barkeep who insists that there’s no illegal drug consumption or purchasing in her establishment; however, her extensive knowledge later enables her to identify the drug Moreau suspects he used to take. Elsewhere, Moreau’s professional confidant Dr. Valerie Ecclewell, a criminal psychologist, has a renewed interest in his amnesia but doesn’t show her hand until late in the text. As protagonists go, Moreau is rather unlikable, but he allows Morgan to effectively weigh questions of social responsibility on a personal and governmental level.

A compelling neonoir dystopian mystery with a fractured protagonist.