Introduction
This work of fiction is a sequel to my first novel: Perception as Reality: The Life & Times of Tedy Merrill. The main character in both is plastic surgeon Dr. Tedy Merrill. Many people who know me believe that parts of Tedy’s multifaceted personality are biographical in nature. Tedy Merrill is entirely a product of my imagination and bears no resemblance to any actual person or plastic surgeon, alive or dead, including me. Many of his psychological struggles are universal to humanity and therefore may be manifest in many people. My views on the nature of evil (a theme of this novel) as it applies to Tedy Merrill, or plastic surgery in general, are not intended as approval of such behavior but are an acknowledgement that it does exist and in many cases, can be an attractive alternative to normal behavior.
As a work in the genre of psychological thriller, a distasteful villain is a necessity. The Russians have served that purpose for writers since the nineteen-fifties and continue to serve that purpose in fiction as well as in real life today. No slight to the Russian people or to the actual Russian Mafia is intended.
Some of the cadre of characters are holdovers from Perception and a few are newly introduced for your entertainment. The new characters are also figments of my, at times, hyperactive, agitated imagination. The geography of the Panhandle of Florida, the island of Bimini and the city of Miami are depicted as accurately as my memory allows. Many of the locations described exist, such as McIntyre, Fl. For all intents and purposes this shall be the end of the Tedy Merrill story; hopefully, it was as enjoyable for the reader to get to know him as it was for me.
Proverbs 24: 1-6.
Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.
“A Native American once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all of the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, ‘The one I feed the most.’”
George Bernard Shaw
“And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo – that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices.”
Joyce Carol Oates
