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Mystery, suspense and psychological thriller are widely acclaimed genres of fiction that has fans from all spheres of life. Whether it is a book or a film, the grip that these genres of fiction has on our adrenaline is extremely tempting. The puzzle, the suspense, the suspect, the plot twists, all adds up to the anticipation leveling up to an extent, which one cannot resist. From the renowned stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle to the directorial classics of Alfred Hitchcock and David Fincher, mystery and suspense have always entertained the audience and created a cult who are addicted to this art cult.
Sidney Sheldon is a name that is known to most among the readers of mystery, thriller and crime-fiction novels. He is one of the go to author for readers who love thrilling scenarios with suspenseful plot twists. The author also has an Academy Award for the best original screenplay for the Hollywood film The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer in 1947. For his debut novel, 'The Naked Face' in the year 1969, the author was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mysterious Writers of North America. The writer was born in Chicago, Illinois, in the year 1917.
"Tell Me Your Dreams", is a thriller novel by Sidney Sheldon. This novel was published in the year 1998.
The book revolves around the themes of sexual assault, murder and most importantly multiple personality disorder (MPD) or Split Personality Disorder. The story is very engaging with a extreme protagonist. The story tries to explore how deep our minds are capable of diving into within ourselves. The book is capable of having a tight grip on the reader, while pressuring their mind to figure out what's going on and stretch their hands to the truth. The plot twists comes in a bit late, but is sure to hit one like an avalanche.
The protagonist of the story is Ashley Patterson, a young female with a monotonous work life. She is a shy individual. The second character is Toni Prescott, who is Ashley's co-worker. Contrary to Ashley, she is outgoing and a singer cum dancer. Another character is Alette Peters. She is an artist. And finally, Ashley's father, Dr. Steven Patterson. These four characters makes up the main characters.
The three women doesn't go along with each other. Toni and Alette, somehow are capable of maintaining a casual friendship. However, Toni completely dislikes Ashley. When the characters are introduced it is indicated that all three of them have issues with their mother, in terms of acceptance.
The story starts with Ashley being aware of a fear within her that she is being followed. One day she comes back home to notice that someone has broken into her house. There's a message that reads "You will die" scribbled in her mirror. She requests police escort subsequent to this event. But to the reader's surprise, the police officer is found dead in her apartment the next day. Prior to this development, two other murders were already reported in a similar pattern. All the victims were castrated and had sex before being killed.
As the story goes on with each character going about their individual lives, a gift from one of the murdered man is found among Ashley's belongings. She is identified as the murderer and consequently gets arrested. The reader receives a critical plot twist as they come to know at this point in the book, that all the three women were one single person, who was suffering from multiple personality disorder (MPD).
Sheriff Dowling who investigates the cases of the murdered men experiences utter shock and surprise and reveals that Ashley Patterson, Toni Prescott and Alette Peters, were the same person.
The second half of the story takes the reader through the trial. Multiple sessions of opinions by opposing psychiatrists regarding the authenticity of multiple personality disorder takes place. Ashley's father requests an attorney friend, David Singer to represent Ashley in the court. He manages to prove to the court that Ashley is innocent by introducing Toni, the violent alter of Toni to the court. Ashley gets transferred to an asylum. She gets to know and becomes familiar with all of her alters, during her therapy. All of them reveals the violent trauma that they have experienced. Ashley realises that she was sexually harassed as a child.
Dr Gilbert and Dr. Otto Lewis treats her in the asylum. Gilbert develops a love interest for Ashley and sympathises with her pain. The audience experiences their second critical plot twist as they come to know that the person sexually harassing Ashley was none other than her father himself, Dr Steven. Her father sexually abused her, which led her to develop Dissociative Identity Disorder. This resulted in the creation of her first alter Toni. When her father assaults her again during her teenage years, while she was living in Italy, she developed her second alter, Alette.
Sheldon intricately structures the two alters. The first, Toni, was a representation of her helpless form as a child without sexual maturity and fear, thus becoming someone who is protective. She ends up cultivating the murderous traits within her, consequently killing the people who put her in similar situations. The second, Alette, represented Ashley's shame after being harassed. She ingrained feelings of compassion, acceptance and motherly warmth, who had a good rapport with Ashley.
The story ends as Ashley comes in term with her alters that they will pretend to recover so that they can escape the asylum. Her goal was to kill her father who was about to remarry a women having a female child. She feared that the child would face the same fate as hers. She is out of the asylum and sets sail to The Hamptons, where her father says, to kill him.
Sheldon gave us three brilliant and strong female characters while surprising the reader as them being one single character. Each character had their own authentic self with their individual ideologies and goals. One single character branched off into three excellent characters. The plot twists of the book is another aspect of the book that deserves great appreciation. While, some might have expected certain things, Sheldon still made sure that a reader falls prey to the desire to know what might have led to the point or a revelation that they were experiencing.
Lastly, the aspect of multiple personality disorder (MPD), which has been subject o long discussions and case studies for a long time, was perfectly represented and shown by Sheldon. All in all, the book weighs perfectly between being a crime thriller and progressive mystery.
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