Was It a Rat I Saw

In a highly original debut, first novelist Perry explores what happens when the left brain doesn't know what the right brain is doing. Dr. Clare Austen, a neurologist at Pasadena University, and prize research subject Tommy Dabrowski, a rock musician who underwent split brain surgery for epilepsy, collide in a darkened hallway with a man who has just killed Clare's mentor. Tommy grapples with the killer with his left arm, which is in the domain of his right brain. Unfortunately, Tommy's right brain can't communicate the information it gathered to the left brain, which controls language. More campus murders occur, requiring armed guards for Clare and Tommy until she can figure out how to access the knowledge trapped in Tommy's memory. Marathon lab experiments and close escapes from death lead to romance, to the chagrin of Tommy's New Age wife and Clare's stuffy lover. Objecting to their amateur sleuthing, the Pasadena police move the pair to the top of the suspect list, while Clare and Tommy investigate mean-spirited academics, grad students and even their own lovers. Antivivisectionists receive a nice plug and Perry, despite the questionable caper behind the killings, gets full marks for a neat premise, on the whole lucidly developed, and for well sustained suspense. (May)