Saturday, March 20, 2021

Fifty Mice by Daniel Pyne

 

Imagine that you are whisked away from your life to enter the Witness Protection program.  No more house you've painstakingly decorated, no more job you understand and maybe even love, no more friends you've known for years.  That's Jay Johnson's situation but with one twist.  He's been brought in as a witness to a murder and he doesn't remember anything about it.

He is whisked off to a safe house on Catalina Island which sounds nice until you can't leave.  He is housed with a woman and her daughter to pretend that they are a happy family but the woman is definitely not happy about it.  The girl is mute, a legacy from the crime they are running from.  

As Jay tries to figure out what happened the night of the murder and if he truly witnessed it, life goes on.  He is given a mundane job renting videos.  He goes daily to see a psychiatrist who tries to uncover Jay's memory.  He plots how to escape and get back to his life.

Daniel Pyne is well known in Hollywood.  He is a screenwriter of such movies as The Manchurian Candidate, Fracture and Pacific Heights as well as working on tv series such as Miami Vice and Alcatraz.  This is his third novel.  His work in a visual medium is apparent as the scenes are written in such a way that the reader can imagine how they would translate to film.  But the reader may find themselves confused for much of the book as they try along with Jay to figure out what is going on which makes things difficult to follow.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.


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