Quarantined

By: Joe McKinney

Narrated by: Therese Plummer

The citizens of San Antonio, Texas, are threatened with extermination by a terrifying outbreak of the flu. Quarantined by the military to contain the virus, the city is in a desperate struggle to survive.

Inside the quarantine walls, Detective Lily Harris is working burial statistics duty at the Scar, San Antonio's mass graveyard, when she finds a murder victim hidden amongst the plague dead.

But Lily's investigation into the young woman's death soon takes a frightening turn as yet another strain of the deadly flu virus surfaces, and now Lily finds herself caught up in a conspiracy orchestrated by a corrupt local government intent on hiding the news from the world and fighting a population threatening to boil over into revolt.

As the city erupts in violence, Lily is forced to do the unthinkable. With the clock ticking toward annihilation, Lily must lead her family through the quarantine walls and escape with news that just might save us all.

©2009 Joe McKinney (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

No spoilers

Therese Plummer is excellent as always. Mispronunced Bexar county—it is pronounced “Bear” not Bex-ar…..but—that is something you wouldn’t know unless you live here (I’ve heard residents mispronounce it too). Story was engaging—fast paced & ironically described many of the circumstances we saw with the Covid-19 pandemic even though it was published in 2011. It’s worth the read.

It could happen, and the frightens me

Quarantined has been in my wish list for some time, there was always something else that seemed more appealing, until finally I took the plunge and picked this up. I know of Joe McKinney from the Dead World series, have yet to listen to it, therefore I am hopeful that zombies will have a roll with the plague that has ravaged the world. But judging from the reviews I have read having no mention of the undead I am doubtful.

I was right being doubtful of there being zombies, oh well, this was still an intriguing and thought provoking. Quarantined is a psychological exploration of what could happen to a community if and when a fatal virus breaks out and the government tries to contain the situation. Starts out a police drama looking for who dunnit, even though this would be the last thing on my mind if I was condemned to die behind a huge wall. McKinney’s real life experience as a homicide detective gives Quarantined real bite as he guided me through departmental politics and bureaucratic red tape. The during investigation the true situation, the anarchy and social unrest, becomes apparent. Most of what I enjoyed about Quarantined was just how real it all seemed, a totally plausible plague, reaction to the plague, the social breakdown into spurts of anarchy that is created by the plague, this all made me wonder what would really happen. I really had only one thought after finishing Quarantined, it could happen, and the frightens me.

It took me almost half of the audiobook to get in to the narration by Therese Plummer. To me she sound like a very unenthusiastic reader who didn’t really believe or enjoy the story to start with. As the story progressed so did her narration, the more she got invested in the story the better her performance.

with a touch of suspence

the story line was a classic who done it mystery. It had me guess the whole way through.

Remember the H2N2 flu virus (shades of the Alamo!)

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I'm not sure yet. Only in Chapter 2. But narrator dropped the ball, big-time - and it is affecting my overall listening experience. (See question #3)

If you’ve listened to books by Joe McKinney before, how does this one compare?

So far, the book story itself is interesting. The narrator's performance is pretty much "unprepared". (See next question.)

How did the narrator detract from the book?

San Antonio, the location of this tale, is located in BEXAR County, Texas. It is NOT pronounced "Becks-are" County, it is correctly pronounced "Bear" County. Which anyone who had looked it up prior to recording this book SHOULD have known. Poor prep by Therese Plummer. It's like fingernails on the blackboard. Makes me mad everytime she does it. (Of course, non-Texan listeners probably won't know the difference.)

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Maybe. If they can pronounce "Bexar County" correctly.

Any additional comments?

Narrators should CHECK OUT pronounciations for proper noun place names before recording the book!

Interesting but...

Would you try another book from Joe McKinney and/or Therese Plummer?

I have all of Joe McKinney's other books and like them.

Could you see Quarantined being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No, story is not that good.

Any additional comments?

FYI this is NOT a zombie novel. I was expecting something different but it is a OK murder/mystery. There are several parts that leave you saying

Learn the name of the County!!

What didn’t you like about Therese Plummer’s performance?

It was very disturbing that she didn't even pronounce the name of the county correctly. Every time she said "BEX - AR" it made me cringe. Good lord, if you're going to get paid to read a book, learn how to pronounce the subject matter!

Very Good Book

If you could sum up Quarantined in three words, what would they be?

Exciting, Realistic, Scary

Have you listened to any of Therese Plummer’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but she did a good job, except for pronouncing the name of Bexar county wrong.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Pronounce the name of the county correctly! I live in South Texas and I'm sure everyone who lives in Texas knows Bexar county is pronounced bear, not Bex-ar. This bothered me quite a bit every time I heard her say it.

A Fine Mystery, With a Few Cringe-worthy Moments

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

An overall enjoyable mystery. I appreciate a strong female lead, but Lilly disappoints when she describes gay male characters as

Would you recommend Quarantined to your friends? Why or why not?

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this audio book to my friends. The heroine's weird character flaw comes off as narrow-minded and prehistoric.

Gotta love a good zombie tale !!!!

I really thought this was a good tale and kept me wanting more. I only wish the sequels had the original characters in it.

It's a viral outbreak quarantine. Zero zombies.

Okay. First things first. This book has nothing to do with zombies. Absolutely nothing...

What it is: a murder/detective story set in a city that was quarantined because of a viral outbreak that kills nearly 20% of the people it infects.

It was pretty realistic... well, the setting and goings-on (riots, looters, fear) that occur within the quarantined city was realistic. The belief that a government would be able to successfully seal off a city with flown in barricades before someone "escaped" to spread the virus to the rest of the country was a bit on the naive side. When the virus that ends up jumping species to wipe out 20-30% of us finally does arrive, it will be spread much much too fast for any government to lock it down as quickly as they do in this story.

It wasn't very original, or stunningly written, but it was a decent story, with engaging enough characters that they don't really drive you crazy. The main character was female, and the author does need a bit more experience living as/with a woman because the woman here is written as a stereotype... (i.e. an entire scene is written around her having a bath and shaving her legs... like that would be a priority in a virally infected world where she has a murder to solve). I won't mention the lame sex scene (it should have been left out it was that pathetic). And there are periodic (and fortunately short) tirades about women's self-esteem as affected by magazines, Republican suppression, and evil organizations who would rather let millions of people die than lose out on potential profits. You won't be left wondering how the author feels about any of these topics.

Anyway... it's a quick read, with some insights on what "real life" might be like in a quarantined city... and what challenges a detective might face while trying to solve a murder under these circumstances. I'd read more by this author, as long as I was prepared for uninspiring characterizations and a heavy reliance on stereotypical physical descriptions and behaviours.

I didn't mind the narration - it wasn't intrusive, and I didn't notice any mispronunciations (other than a couple HWO instead of WHO), but, then again, I'm not from Texas. It is not gory or graphic and I don't think there was any swearing.