Locked In

August 17, 2009
Bestseller Muller's harrowing 27th mystery to feature San Francisco PI Sharon McCone (after 2008's Burn Out
) opens with a bang: returning to her office late one night, McCone is shot while interrupting a burglary. When she wakes up in the hospital, McCone is fully conscious but “locked in.” Paralyzed, she can communicate only by blinking her eyes. Muller articulates this chilling conceit with painful realism, even citing the popular French memoir about the locked-in syndrome, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
. Narrative duty falls on McCone's motley crew of co-workers and other series regulars like her husband, Hy Ripinsky. Each chapter, told from a different perspective, provides another clue in a convoluted case that includes multiple murders, a sex scandal in city government and the inevitable coverup. While this approach can be hard to follow at times, it provides Muller ample opportunity to showcase her strength at characterization.

After being shot in the head, San Francisco P.I. Sharon McCone can hear and think, but she's completely paralyzed. Able to communicate only by eye-blinks, McCone is literally a prisoner in her body. As her husband, Hy Ripinsky, and her quirky investigative team work nonstop to find out who shot her, they stumble into a complex case involving sex, murder, suicide, and a city government scandal. Deanna Hurst's narration is intelligent and matter-of-fact. Her voice is pleasant, and her characterizations distinctive. The novel is divided into chapters featuring each of the story's many characters. While this structure tends to diminish the plot's intensity in the audio format, Hurst handles the convoluted storytelling with admirable clarity. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine