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A review by attytheresa
DoubleBlind by Libby Fischer Hellmann, Libby Fischer Hellmann
4.0
A doubleblind is a clinical test using 2 or more groups without either knowing which medicine each group is being given. It's an excellent title for this detective novel with 2 separate plots set during the COVID pandemic. Story opens with PI Georgia feeling the effects of a pandemic on her work, and everything we all experienced. She gets a call from a friend and is asked to investigate the death of a healthy older woman immediately after being given the COVID vaccine, a death caused by the vaccine. The family is not satisfied it was really a vaccine related death.
While Georgia investigates this death, we are introduced to a parallel plot regarding a Fundamentalist Mormon wife who runs away from her abusive husband, said fundamentalist husband now looking to kill his wife as she knows too much about some illegal doings he's contemplating. This story quickly intersects with Georgia because she is the doppelganger for the runaway wife and is being mistaken for her. When someone attempts to murder Georgia, the question is whether its the COVID case that's put her at risk or is it being a doppelganger - the doubleblind of the title.
This is my first [a:Libby Fischer Hellmann|77146|Libby Fischer Hellmann|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1634297607p2/77146.jpg] but it sure won't be my last. The story builds a bit slowly but accellerates in quite a satisfactory manner. There are a few twists and turns, and at the end of the penultimate chapter, the author delivers a shocker I did not see coming but that was in hindsight inevitable. It's a beautifully plotted detective suspense thriller. I thought the affect of the pandemic on the character's everyday lives was well-integrated into the story and will make it very clear exactly when this story occurs. Set in and around Chicago, including places in nearby states (this New Yorker tends to forget Chicago's proximity to 3 other states), there is a wonderfully strong sense of place; I believe I would even recognize many of the settings were I to visit them. The author did not stint on her research either into COVID vaccine distribution and administration, but also into Fundamentalist Mormons -- I learned a few things and none of it was extraneous to the plot.
Best of all, though this was 6th in an ongoing series which I have not read, it reads perfectly fine as a standalone. There are references to prior events and secondary characters and relationships clearly are evolving, but it does not read as you need to have read the earlier books to appreciate where all are here. .
While Georgia investigates this death, we are introduced to a parallel plot regarding a Fundamentalist Mormon wife who runs away from her abusive husband, said fundamentalist husband now looking to kill his wife as she knows too much about some illegal doings he's contemplating. This story quickly intersects with Georgia because she is the doppelganger for the runaway wife and is being mistaken for her. When someone attempts to murder Georgia, the question is whether its the COVID case that's put her at risk or is it being a doppelganger - the doubleblind of the title.
This is my first [a:Libby Fischer Hellmann|77146|Libby Fischer Hellmann|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1634297607p2/77146.jpg] but it sure won't be my last. The story builds a bit slowly but accellerates in quite a satisfactory manner. There are a few twists and turns, and at the end of the penultimate chapter, the author delivers a shocker I did not see coming but that was in hindsight inevitable. It's a beautifully plotted detective suspense thriller. I thought the affect of the pandemic on the character's everyday lives was well-integrated into the story and will make it very clear exactly when this story occurs. Set in and around Chicago, including places in nearby states (this New Yorker tends to forget Chicago's proximity to 3 other states), there is a wonderfully strong sense of place; I believe I would even recognize many of the settings were I to visit them. The author did not stint on her research either into COVID vaccine distribution and administration, but also into Fundamentalist Mormons -- I learned a few things and none of it was extraneous to the plot.
Best of all, though this was 6th in an ongoing series which I have not read, it reads perfectly fine as a standalone. There are references to prior events and secondary characters and relationships clearly are evolving, but it does not read as you need to have read the earlier books to appreciate where all are here. .