Fifty Mice

November 10, 2014
At the start of this wonderfully paranoid jaunt through competing realities from Pyne (Twentynine Palms), Jay Johnson, an ordinary guy, is abducted at a Los Angeles subway station. A deputy U.S. marshal known as Public later informs him that he’s in the Federal Witness Protection Program because of a murder investigation. While Jay claims ignorance, it becomes apparent that his memories are easily forgotten, manipulated, or invented. He’s given a fake family as cover, and, as his life begins to resemble a performance art piece, layers of artificially reconstructed events begin to reveal their true nature. Even Santa Catalina Island, where Jay winds up, is like a film set, a Potemkin village populated by federal agents and witness protection program inductees. As Jay struggles to discover the truth, Pyne’s confident hand guides readers to a surprising, popcorn-dropping final twist. Agent: Victoria Sanders: Victoria Sanders & Associates.

This highly visual psychological thriller about murder, memory, and the meaning of life is set largely on Southern California's Catalina Island in the off-season. Narrator D.W. Moffett provides a clear, slightly sibilant, well-paced delivery. He does a solid job with the sometimes uninspired dialogue between mysterious federal agents, island characters, and the book's core of protagonists who have been cast adrift. As the story ascends to its surprising climax, Moffett's quiet, authoritative voice makes the abductions, escapes, pursuits, and gunplay more believable. Listeners will never think about Catalina the same way again. F.C. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine