Quarantined (edition 2009)

In Quarantined, a cop discovers a murdered body lying among the bodies of plague victims slotted for mass burial. They begin to investigate the murder and uncover important information about the pandemic which would incite mass panic if discovered.
I didn't like the book very much for a few reasons.

The main character is a lady cop, and that was a mistake on the author's part. There was really no reason why the main character should have been a woman, and the author does not write convincingly as a woman at all. If the main character was a man, the book would probably have been about 25% less painful.

*May contain spoilers*
I also didn't find the story convincing. There wasn't enough detail to really make it believable. They believe that the murder victim was murdered in a part of town known as "Ground Zero," so they go out there and investigate. Once out there, they're shot at by a bunch of looters who hang around the area salvaging supplies. You would think that a police character would at least acknowledge this as a possible murder scenario, but its largely ignored till almost 50 pages later. Then, its only identified as an afterthought. The logic used in several scenarios was warped and eye-roll inducing.

Also, the book description makes it sound like the main character's escape from the quarantine is a major part of the story. Its pretty much the END of the story. Escaping isn't even a major part of the story, it takes like...10 pages or so, and most of that is just the characters discussing their escape. After they escape, life is hunky-dory and the book just stops. I would say ends, but it kind of has a non-ending.

Overall, I wouldn't say its a terrible book, but it is pretty bad. ( )

Quarantined by Joe McKinney is a good, solid, detective story set in the shambles of a quarantined San Antonio, Texas. Lily, a homicide detective, and her tough partner Chunk doggedly struggle to solve a murder in a plague-infested San Antonio, while the city falls apart around them. Part human interest, part mystery, and part apocalyptic survival tale, Quarantined is well worth reading. ( )