Receptor - by Alan Glynn (Paperback)

About the Book

"Originally published in Great Britain [in 2018] by Faber and Faber Ltd. as Under the night"--Title page verso.

Book Synopsis

"[Receptor], Alan Glynn's sequel to The Dark Fields (the inspiration for the film Limitless starring Bradley Cooper), grippingly imagines the origins of MDT-48--the series' infamous 'smart drug, ' which realizes remarkable human potential."--Entertainment Weekly (New & Notable)

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Irish Times (Crime Fiction) and the Irish Independent (Thrillers)
One of CrimeReads' Most Anticipated Books of the Year

On a Friday evening in 1953, Madison Avenue ad executive Ned Sweeney enjoys a cocktail in the apartment of a strange and charismatic man he met hours earlier. Ned doesn't know it, but he has just become a participant in Project MK-Ultra, a covert, CIA-run study of mind-control techniques. The experience transforms Ned, pulling him away from his wife and young son and into the inner circles of the richest and most powerful people of his day. In a matter of months, he is dead.

It is a tragedy Ned's family struggles to understand, then tries to forget . . . but some skeletons refuse to stay buried. More than sixty years later, Ned's grandson Ray is introduced to a retired government official who claims to know the details of Ned's life and death. Ray is prepared to dismiss the encounter, until he discovers that the now-elderly man once worked for the CIA. Ray digs deeper, and begins to question everything as he uncovers rumors of a mysterious "smart drug"--a fabled black-market cognitive enhancer called MDT-48.

Review Quotes

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Irish Times (Crime Fiction) and the Irish Independent (Thrillers)

"Glynn's sequel to The Dark Fields (the inspiration for the film Limitless starring Bradley Cooper) grippingly imagines the origins of MDT-48--the series' infamous 'smart drug, ' which realizes remarkable human potential."--Entertainment Weekly (New & Notable)

"A mashup of Mad Men and the Manchurian Candidate...Glynn, the author of Limitless, strikes the right balance between full-on paranoia and being a little concerned that you are in too deep."--Lisa Levy, CrimeReads (Books to Read This Month)

"[I]t's hard not to discern traces of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo... although there is nothing difficult or post-modern about [Glynn's] books: the prose is meticulous but fluent, with a persuasive, urbane American rhythmic pulse...[Receptor is] a wild ride, laced with all the characteristic Glynn features: paranoia, dread, bodily unease (often understandable due to the prodigious substance ingestion), and a prelapsarian sense of conspiracy theory as something untarnished by fake news and the likes of Alex Jones, something that might actually uncover the truth."--Declan Hughes, The Irish Times

"Both a prequel to and sequel of Glynn's debut [Limitless], [Receptor] is a wild ride through history's back channels...Shot through with Glynn's leitmotif of justifiable paranoia, it's a tantalising tale of what-ifs and could-have-beens as Ned and Ray separately piece together an appalling account of a 'deep state' manipulation of the American public on a staggering scale."--Declan Burke, The Irish Times (Best New Crime Fiction)

"Receptor expands on the world of Glynn's The Dark Fields, which has been made into both a movie and a CBS television show [Limitless]. Readers can easily envision Ned and Ray on the big screen, too, so cinematic and fast-paced are their stories...Glynn juggles the two narratives with aplomb, expertly twisting and jerking the reader through Ned's and Ray's quests for answers."--Kirkus Reviews

"As the story alternates between past and present, the truth...gradually emerges. Readers who enjoyed Edgar finalist Glynn's Limitless (originally published as The Dark Fields) will welcome this intriguing sequel."--Publishers Weekly

"If you love a conspiracy theory, then [Receptor] is for you, a distillation of CIA shenanigans, experimental drugs, suicide/murders, the immunity of 'The One Percent', big pharma, Mad Men and political expediency. It's a heady mix that had me hooked (pun intended)."--Andrew Hill, SHOTS

"Receptor is Alan Glynn's masterpiece. A wild, exciting ride through the secret history of America and a page-turning delight that grips tighter with each unfolding page. Glynn is a natural storyteller and an expert in generating tension, unease, and dread. The best crime novel I've read this year. If you liked Limitless, you will love this."--Stav Sherez, author of The Intrusions, Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, 2018

About the Author

ALAN GLYNN is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. His first novel, The Dark Fields, was republished as Limitless and simultaneously released as a film of the same name in March 2011, and was subsequently developed into a TV series by CBS. The winner of the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award and a finalist for an Edgar Award, Glynn is also the author of Winterland, Bloodland, Graveland, and Paradime. He lives in Ireland.