Quarantined

De: Joe McKinney

Narrado por: 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.

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.