D August Baertlein

Synapse D August Baertlein

When Jake's identical twin is left brain-damaged by a near-drowning accident, Jake is convinced it's his fault. After nine years of visiting his unresponsive brother in a care center, Jake is called to a meeting with Dr. Deborah Jane Ryder, neurosurgeon. "Gabriel is still in there," she says. "And I could set him free." But in return, Jake must allow the doctor to experiment with his brain, compare Jake's grey matter with his twin's.

Amnesia, a street-smart death row inmate, is one of few surviving subjects from Ryder's previous experiments. She's made more significant gains than even Ryder expected from the thousands of brain implants inserted into the woman's skull. Amnesia's newly acquired telepathic abilities help her escape the doctor's clutches, at least temporarily.

Dr. Ryder's motivation for such unethical research is the formula locked inside the head of Dr. Terra O'Hare, a near-drowning victim, much like Gabriel. If Ryder can decode Terra's brainwaves and retrieve what the young scientist failed to write in her lab notebook before her 'accident, ' Ryder and her patron will share fame and fortune.

But not if Jake, Amnesia, and Terra can help it.

Told in three distinctive points of view, their stories braid together for an unlikely team working against tall odds.