Chameleon’s shadow. Minette Walters. 2007.

When Lieutenant Charles Acland is flown home from Iraq with serious head injuries, he faces not only permanent disfigurement but also an apparent change to his personality.

Crippled by migraines, he becomes increasingly isolated and withdrawn and starts to display sporadic bouts of aggression…….particularly against women.

Rejecting medical advice, Acland discharges himself from hospital and cuts all ties with his former life and moves to London. Alone and unmonitored, he sinks into a private world of guilt and paranoia…..until a customer annoys him in a Bermondsey pub…..

He attracts the attention of police who are investigating three murders in the area that appear to have been motivated by extreme rage. Under suspicion, Acland is forced to confront the real issues behind his isolation.

How much control does he have over the dark ode of his personality? Do his migraines contribute to his rages? Has he always been the duplicitous chameleon that his ex-fiancée claims? And why…..if he hates women….does he look to a woman for help?