Coincidence

From the critically acclaimed author of The Man Who Turned Into Himself and Superstition comes a truly bizarre and mind-twisting tale of murder, suspense, and coincidence. Isn't it odd how you can just be thinking about someone and they happen to call you on the phone that very moment? Or when you come across a picture of a friend you haven't seen in years and she suddenly bumps into you on the street the next day? That type of thing happened to George all the time, which is why he started investigating the fascinating world of coincidences and synchronicities. In fact, it's while writing a book on the subject that the most remarkable experience of his life occurs: he runs into Larry Hart, the identical twin brother he never knew he had. Or so he believes. As George gets to know this newfound twin brother, stranger and stranger things begin happening, until George realizes that Larry is not really his identical twin, but someone else entirely. While trying to get to the bottom of the identity of his mysterious twin, George discovers the real reason for coincidences and synchronicities-and why they're not nearly as innocent as they seem.Based on the real metaphysics of synchronicities, COINCIDENCE is a chilling and suspenseful novel about one man's search for the reason behind coincidences-and the shocking and murderous truths he uncovers.From Publishers WeeklyAmbrose (Superstition; The Man Who Turned into Himself) weaves a tale of duplicitous doppelgengers in this supernatural thriller. George is a quiet academic writing pseudoscience books for fun, supported by his rich, gallery-hopping wife, Sara. But his father's death triggers an avalanche of coincidental events from the appearance of old photographs of him with people he doesn't remember to an encounter with his own double, Larry, a crook on the run who has no qualms setting "jerk-off George" up for the hit men Larry is evading. Of course Larry, after assuming George's identity and faking amnesia, could have no idea that the female detective he's been sleeping with in exchange for information on "himself" would also have had an affair with rising lawyer-turned-politician Steve, who's having an affair with Sara. And no one, including the reader who by now will be wondering why the author has further complicated his narrative with references to Jung, Koestler and the I Ching could foresee the massive metaphysical conspiracy Larry and George are literally yanked into. It simultaneously explains their interrelated problems while confronting them both with an altogether more dangerous one. Ambrose clearly enjoys drawing twisty plots from inexplicable events, and he throws in just enough scientific explorations of synchronicity to justify the otherwise mystical explanations with which readers must content themselves. There is a surprisingly (or perhaps coincidentally) predictable ending to this unpredictable thriller, which undermines some of its punch, though not its author's cleverness. National advertising. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.About the AuthorDavid Ambrose spent years investigating the scientific basis for synchronicities and coincidences and infuses the novel with the hard science behind these fascinating phenomena. He lives in Switzerland.