Between the Lines of Men

by Travis Russell

Between the Lines of Men is a work of literary fiction following Don Freemont,
a young upstart psychologist during the 1950s who is obsessed with leaving behind an academic legacy. Don is one of the heads of Project MKUltra, a project sanctioned by the United States government in conjunction with Stanford University in which psychoactive chemicals such as LSD are tested as weapons of war.
When one of Don's subjects commits suicide, Washington grows weary of Don's antics and demands to view his experiment. With his future and legacy in mind, Don ends up becoming his own guinea pig. After a hellish vision, Don comes to the epiphany that he is responsible for the death of his subject and can no longer take part in the project. His ego still clinging to life, Don sets out from Stanford with intentions of forging a new legacy.

139 pages, ebook

Published September 3, 2016

Reviews

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway.

The story was interesting with strong characters. It was entertaining and the ending was different, not what i was excepting from the main character.

[Lindsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Self-published or books from independent publishers are always hit or miss. This, unfortunately, was a miss. I never give one star to first time authors, especially when there is potential. The idea for this story had legs but the story itself never really got off the ground. The author used a lot of cliched language and the dialogue was painfully forced. Also, the author tried to give the narrative a noir detective vibe but it failed quite miserably. I skimmed through the rest of the book after reading around 50 pages or so and it didn't seem to improve. The writing may be improved with a heavy-handed seasoned editor but as is I can't recommend it.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd actually give this novel a 2.5 out of 5 stars. The writing is beautiful in this novel, but the characters are hard to like, and because of this even harder to root for. Don the main character is the absolute worst.. all he cares about is himself.. and even when he is trying to do something for others.. it just comes across as he's only doing it for the legacy and recognition. The plot was alright, but for someone who is experimenting with LSD and becomes his own guinea pig... I was hoping for more intense lab scenes and more of that within the story... but that's only for the first little bit. This novel was decent, and I would definitely read something else by this author.