Receptor
A Novel
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
"[Receptor], Alan Glynn's sequel to The Dark Fields (the inspiration for the film Limitless starring Bradley Cooper), grippingly imagines the origins of MDT-48—the series' infamous 'smart drug,' which realizes remarkable human potential."—Entertainment Weekly (New & Notable)
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Irish Times (Crime Fiction) and the Irish Independent (Thrillers)
One of CrimeReads' Most Anticipated Books of the Year
On a Friday evening in 1953, Madison Avenue ad executive Ned Sweeney enjoys a cocktail in the apartment of a strange and charismatic man he met hours earlier. Ned doesn't know it, but he has just become a participant in Project MK-Ultra, a covert, CIA-run study of mind-control techniques. The experience transforms Ned, pulling him away from his wife and young son and into the inner circles of the richest and most powerful people of his day. In a matter of months, he is dead.
It is a tragedy Ned's family struggles to understand, then tries to forget . . . but some skeletons refuse to stay buried. More than sixty years later, Ned's grandson Ray is introduced to a retired government official who claims to know the details of Ned's life and death. Ray is prepared to dismiss the encounter, until he discovers that the now-elderly man once worked for the CIA. Ray digs deeper, and begins to question everything as he uncovers rumors of a mysterious "smart drug"—a fabled black-market cognitive enhancer called MDT-48.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers who enjoyed Edgar finalist Glynn's Limitless (originally published as The Dark Fields) will welcome this intriguing sequel. One night in 1953, in a Manhattan apartment, advertising executive Ned Sweeney drinks a martini laced with MDT-48, a mind control drug, and becomes an unwitting participant in the CIA's MK-Ultra program. The drug makes Ned smarter and gives him the confidence to sway opinions of clients and some of the period's most iconic figures, but he dies within months. More than 60 years later, Ray Sweeney, Ned's grandson, believes his grandfather committed suicide, until he meets Clay Proctor, a retired government official who worked for the CIA in the mid-1950s, who tells him he's got it wrong. Guided by Clay, Ray embarks on a search for the truth. He even manages to get a sample of MDT-48 and experiments with the drug on his own. As the story alternates between past and present, the truth behind Ned's sudden death gradually emerges. Despite a predictable ending, most readers will be satisfied.