Modus Vivendi

In 1960s America, a lawyer discovers the woman he's defending isn't who she claims to be. Pete Maragon thinks he's taking a straightforward fraud case: Mary Hall, accused of using her 'psychic powers' in a bank scam. But as he digs deeper into a world of telepaths and telekinetics living in the shadows, he finds himself caught between a terrified minority and a terrified majority. Someone wants the Psis exposed, whatever the cost. Someone else will do anything to keep them hidden. With the help of a telekinetic named Keys Crescas, Maragon must navigate a web of deception reaching into the judiciary itself - because in a world where thoughts can be read and objects moved by will, trust is the rarest commodity. This is a legal thriller wrapped in a civil rights allegory, where the courtroom becomes a battleground and the verdict could determine whether two kinds of people can ever share the same world. Berryman writes with the urgency of someone who knows these tensions aren't science fiction - they're just the future arriving early.