Delirious

You know the old adage "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you"? That's the theme of Delirious in a nutshell. Charlie is a highly successful, detail oriented man whose life begins to unravel. He's seeing things and hearing things that others can't. He's finding notes to himself, written in his own handwriting, that he doesn't remember ever writing. With a family history of schizophrenia, is seems likely that Charlie's sudden career crash-and-burn is caused by the development of a mental illness. Is someone setting him up, or had he truly begun to lose his mind?

In Delirious, you will never know what to expect. You'll be convinced Charlie's crazy, while almost equally sure he's the victim of an elaborate show more plot to make him appear insane. His paralyzing terror of mental illness is so deeply part of Charlie's personality that you'll begin to fear it right along with him.

While a thrilling novel on many levels, Delirious is a psychological thriller in the truest sense. What if Charlie's mind is the real enemy here? How do you convince people you aren't crazy when you don't know why, or even if, you've done the things you appear to have done?

Delirious combines technology (the project Charlie is working on is amazing), psychology, mystery and adventure into something truly terrifying. I wasn't quite sure what to make of Delirious when I first picked it up, but it proved to be a shocking thrill ride in which I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. show less

Enjoyable read. At first, I thought the main character was overwrought and droll, but then you get deeper into who he and his family are, and that's when the story flows. The manipulation. Is he going crazy? Is the therapist a nut?

But the action and story work well. I think the therapist's character could have been more human, more real, but other than that the story drew you in and made you want to know what was happening.

What if you knew there was a roughly 50/50 chance you'd get a life-threatening mental illness that would destroy everything you'd achieved in your life? How would you cope with that?

Charlie Giles is your basic self-centered techno yuppie - the marketing end of a duo whose technical half created InVision and took the company to a multi-billion dollar acquisition. So a few people got hurt along the way - the ends justify the means, right? For anyone who labored in the vineyards of the dot com boom and bust Charlie and his milieu will be quite familiar. What makes Delirious fun and different is that he's plopped right smack down in the middle of an intelligent debut techno-thriller.

Charlie Giles may have found success, fortune, and power, show more but he's running from some family secrets - one of which could lose him everything he has. His brother's schizophrenia has had life-altering effects on Charlie's life and that of his family. The sure knowledge that having a sibling with schizophrenia makes it significantly more likely that you will have schizophrenia hangs over Charlie's life like an axe. It's just one of the secrets that make him vulnerable and it's fun to watch Mr. Palmer take his life apart in this great debut thriller. A smart, entertaining read with some interesting twists and turns along the way. show less

If the name sounds familiar, it should. Daniel is best selling novelist Michael Palmer's son. Apparently talent runs in the Palmer genes, because "Delirious" is as white knuckled a thriller as ever there was one. It's actually a techno-thriller that rings very true--Palmer was a pioneering e-commerce website developer, so he knows of which he writes. The main character, Charlie, is a hot shot computer guy who has just merged his small company with a huge one and is set to hit the big leagues in a very short time. He's also an ass with no patience and no mercy for anyone. But all of that changes in the space of just a few days, and Charlie finds himself wanted for murder and questioning his own sanity as he stumbles over more and more show more layers of the complex plot and things make less and less sense to him and the reader. There is no one to trust and no such thing as reliable truth throughout this page-turner, right up to the breathtaking end. You'll never look at a computer the same way again. show less

So, first off I knew this book had the right plot and theme for me. I am part of a startup company and love technology. So, why not read a thriller about a successful entrepreneur? Overall, I found the book to be interesting and made for a good summer read. Being a college student, I'm always busy reading textbooks and don't have enough time to read books that I might enjoy. I was entertained and the book kept me up a good couple nights wondering what was happening to Charlie.

Daniel Palmer’s Delirious delivers an intense non-stop suspense debut with corporate espionage on steroids, for a bang up psychological thriller.

Eddie Prescott was world-class software engineer whose life spiraled out of control, a partner of Charlie Giles, who took a wrong turn and ended his life from a bridge.

Charlie Giles sold his successful start-up company to a Boston electronics firm, where he now serves as senior director. As a top software engineer at SoluCent, developing cutting edge InVision, a high profile sophisticated car entertainment system. He is successful, intelligent, and lives to work money and a future.

This all changes when a woman, Anne, a SoluCent marketing employee, tips Giles off that one of his superiors, show more Jerry Schmidt, will argue against a deal with GM to make InVision standard. When Giles crashes an executive team meeting and confronts Schmidt. Giles cannot prove Anne, works for SoluCent or even exists, and his betrayal leaking secrets to competitor, leads to his firing and is escorted out of the building.

He is astounded and has to prove he was set up. However, as things start stacking up against him, he fears he is falling victim to his family history of schizophrenia after finding a note in his own handwriting listing names of SoluCent executives marked for death. Someone is manipulating him as he is surrounded with deceit, lies, and betrayal, as he turns paranoid, slowly second guessing reality, fiction, or illusion.

Delirious in an acutely disturbed state of mind resulting from illness or intoxication and characterized by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence of thought and speech. This accurately describes Charlie’s state of mind when no one will believe him, and all the evidence is pointing at him as a cold-blooded killer.

In the meantime, readers learn about Joe, his brother (a blogger-loved this) which gave the techno thriller and even more human interest side with family dynamics between the two brothers, and an inside look into mental health issues and caretakers. As Charlie fears of losing his mind intensify and his brother comes to his defense, he has a better understanding of the real brother behind the illness, he has overlooked. (loved Joe's character)!

I have read Palmer’s newer books and making my way backward to read his previous books. Highly recommend Desperate! I actually liked Delirious better than Helpless and Stolen, as Palmer is brilliant as a lover of techno, and psychological thrillers, especially with the wrongly accused desperately proving their innocence.

Best of all love, love Peter Berkrot, (swoon) as he wows the intensity for an outstanding audio performance! (Missed him in Helpless). Hard to believe this is a debut; love the wicked twists of revenge! show less

I actually give this book 4.5 stars. This is a thriller with lots of suspense. The book moves quickly with no dull areas. I had a hard time putting it down once I started and got into the story. Charlie Giles is a director of Solucent (a giant techno firm) where he sold his start up company for millions. He is self-centered and not a very nice person. He is somewhat estranged from his family (mother and brother) due to his brother's mental health issues (schizophrenic) and what he sees as his mother's absorption with his brother. Suddenly, everything starts to go wrong. He meets with a woman and makes a business decision based on information she gives him, and that turns out to be the first step in his downfall. When he starts hearing show more voices, finds messages in his own hand writing that he does not remember writing and people he is angry with turn up dead, he begins to think he is developing schizophrenia. When his mother has a stroke, he had to go back home to help his brother, but it ends up the other way around. A thrill a minute. A great book to keep you on the edge of your seat. show less