Sunday, December 17, 2023

Book Review: Supercommunicators


Title: 
Supercommunicators

AuthorCharles Duhigg

Publisher: Random House Publishing

Publication Date: February 20, 2024

Rating: 4 out of 5

I am not a supercommunicator but would love to be. Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, makes the case in his new book that we can all learn to be one, and he attempts to show us how. 

The book is based on the premise that there are three conversations (and mindsets) and four rules. The three conversations are: a) what's this really about (decision-making mindset), b) how do we feel (emotional mindset), and c) who are we (social mindset). And the four rules are: 1) pay attention to what kind of conversation is occurring; 2) share your goals, and ask what others are seeking; 3) ask about others' feelings and share your own; and 4) explore if identities are important to this discussion. Sounds simple, right?

Much of this sounds familiar. I am sure I have come across this before, in other books on communication (and that's why I rated the book a 4 and not a 5). But what I really like about this book are the numerous stories to highlight each of the rules or tools. From NRA debates to Netflix culture to NASA interviews, Duhigg takes us on a delightful journey of supercommunicators.

Another thing I like about this book are the tools he provides. Each chapter is filled with figures that provide simple tools for us to use. And then, if that is not enough, he summarizes each of the main sections with a short guide to using the ideas shared. If you didn't want to take notes in the narrative chapters, these are perfect.

Will I become a supercommunicator as a result of reading this book? Well, like all self-help books, it depends on whether I commit to adding the tools into my toolbox and putting them into practice. I sure will try. Time will tell.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Book Review: The Cure for Burnout

Title: The Cure for Burnout

AuthorEmily Ballesteros

Publisher: Dial Press

Publication Date: February 13, 2024

Rating: 5 out of 5

Burnout was a huge corporate buzzword during Covid and remote working. Now that the pandemic is behind and companies have mandated return-to-wrkplace, they act as if burnout has been cured. But that is far from the truth. Burnout lives on in the lives of many workers throughout the US and worldwide. So this book is a great resource for those in the midst of burnout. It is written for the individual, not the manager, but we can all learn from Ballesteros.

The first part of the book outlines modern burnout and goes into the three types. It is interesting but perhaps the least helpful. If you are in the midst of burnout, you don't need to know what it is. You need help. Still, this is good introductory material.

The meat of the book, and what you paid for, is the cure. And that is found in the middle section, which devote five chapters to the five pillars of burnout management: mindset, personal care, time management, boundaries, and stress management. Filled with great illustrations, this is what I enjoyed the most. Each chapter contains tools to add to your toolkit, such as minimums, romanticization, gamification, reminders and accountability for personal care. I particuarly liked the tools for stress management, such as fact-feeling-story, tangible vs intangible list, cognitive reframing and burnout jenga.

The chapters are long but worth reading carefully while taking notes. I loved this book and have a new set of tools I plan to use when I sense burnout rearing its ugly heads.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Book Review: Black Wolf

Title: Black Wolf

AuthorJuan Gómez-Jurado 

Publisher: Minotaur Books 

Publication Date: March 12, 2024

Rating: 5 out of 5

The middle book (or movie) in a trilogy is often a filler, a place holder whose job is to set up the final chapter. This sequel to Red Queen is likely the middle book in a trilogy but is more than a place holder. It is a twisty thriller in its own right.

This story has Antonia Scott called back into action chaperoned by Inspector Jon Gutierrez. A mafiosa has been murdered and his pregnant wife targeted but escapes an attempt on her life at a shopping mall. Scott's job is to locate the wife. But things are more involved and as the body count mounts, Gómez-Jurado shares some of Scott's backstory so we can learn how her magnificent detecting brain was formed.

With fast pacing, short chapters, great chemistry once more between the two leads, this is a worthy follow-up to Red Queen. Although it is billed as the second in a series of two, the cliffhanger ending simply begs a final chapter. Gómez-Jurado cannot leave us hanging with returning to bring closure.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Turkey Films 2023!

2023 brought a new grandchild to the Baggs family. To honor and celebrate this new baby (and babies everywhere), this Thanksgiving I am giving thanks for babies and baby movies. So, for this year's Turkey films, I am focusing on movies that feature babies in one way or another. The Turkey Film blogposts  date back over a decade to the first version in 2011 (check out the "rules" laid out in the first of these annual posts). So, in no particular order, turkey films 2023:

Happy and safe Thanksgiving to all.
  • Raising Turkey 
  • Turkey mama
  • Three men  and a Turkey 
  • Look who’s turkeying 
  • She's having a Turkey 
  • Nine turkeys 
  • Turkeyed up
  • Bridget Jones' Turkey 
  • Rosemary's Turkey
  • Boss Turkey
Happy and safe Thanksgiving to all.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Book Review: Nightwatching

Title: Nightwatching
Author: Tracy Sierra
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books 
Publication Date: February 6, 2024
Rating: 4 out of 5

What do you do when there is a snowstorm outside, a menacing intruder inside, and there is no help for you and your kids? This is the situation facing the heroine in Tracy Sierra's debut thriller. With the husband absent, the mother has to scoop up her two kids and hide in a tiny secret room behind a fireplace. Then she must decide whether to try to wait out the threat or leave her kids and run for help.

The premise has great potential. And the opening chapters are taut and terrifying, real edge-of-the-seat stuff. But the middle of the book slowed down and seemed mired in mundanity. It was only towards the end that it really came alive again. 

This is a good thriller, not a great one. More action in the middle would have realized its potential. Still, this is worth a read and a good beginning for a new author to watch.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Book Review: She's Not Sorry

 Title: She's Not Sorry

Author: Mary Kubica
Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing
Publication Date: April 2, 2024
Rating: 5 out of 5

This psychological thriller centers on an ICU nurse, Meghan Michaels, and a coma patient, Caitlyn. Caitlyn has jumped from a bridge and fallen 20 feet onto train tracks and arrives at the Chicago Hospital where Meghan works with barely a 50:50 chance of living. And Meghan becomes her nurse. Nothing special so far. Until we find out Caitlyn may have been pushed, and Meghan becomes emotionally involved with Caitlyn's care. In parallel with this, there is a man preying on woman which keeps Meghan and her teenage daughter worried.

There seems to be two or three stories going on at the same time, all related to these two central females. But who is the heroine and
who is the villain? It is only when the stories collide at the end of part 1, that a huge ball drops. With plot twists spiralling on plot twists, this is a really clever thriller that sucked me in and kept me reading. I was not sorry to have read this book!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Friday, October 20, 2023

Book Review: Twenty-Seven Minutes

Title: Twenty-Seven Minutes

Author: Ashley Tate
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: January 30, 2024
Rating: 3 out of 5

The premise of the book is great: a car crash on an isolated bridge, three high school students hurt, but the driver takes 27 minutes to call 911 for help. Why did Grant wait so long? As a result, his sister Phoebe died. And their small town is stuck in the aftermath of the tragedy, with lives disrupted and forever altered. 

The story takes place 10 years later. Chapters alternate between four points of view: Grant, the other passenger, Becca, and siblings June and Wyatt. Also interspersed are flashbacks to that tragic night , exposing the events of that night little by little.

I found the story to be too slow, and strangely I got lost in the characters, having a hard time keeping track of who was who. I kept having to rethink who Becca and June were, and what their relationship to Grant was. I don't know why. The pace did accelerate as the end approached, and the climax was a surprise. But I probably would have stopped reading far earlier if I had not committed to writing a review. The book did not live up to its premise and potential. 

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Book Review: My Retirement My Way

 Title: My Retirement My Way

Author: Veronica McCain
Publisher: Zeitgeist
Publication Date: April 25, 2023
Rating: 5 out of 5

This workbook is intended for recent retirees, to help them through the first year of retirement and beyond. I am just over a year away from retirement, so not quite the target audience, but I found it hugely helpful in thinking ahead. To get the most out of the book, it does require active involvement, working through the various exercises which are intended to help you maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle in retirement.. I found myself completing them in my own journal, rather than in the book itself, since I plan to come back to them later, when I have just retired and probably a year or two into retirement. 

Divided into three parts, I found the first part (retirement starts here and now) most useful. It helped me to define a future vision for my retirement. The second part deals with creating meaning and passion, and although some of the exercises were applicable, some will have to wait till I am in retirement. The third part, goals, was the least useful for me right now. That part includes exercises for defining goals, building plans, making/breaking habits, and I am familiar enough with these concepts not to need much of them. But if they are new to you, they would be extremely helpful.

I've read a number of books about retirement, and hence much of the material was not new. But being put into valuable exercise form, I think this is a great addition to the group. I recommend this if you are heading into retirement.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Book Review: Betrayal

Title: Betrayal

Author: Phillip Margolin
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: November 7 2023
Rating: 5 out of 5

As with most of his prior 6 Robin Lockwood legal thrillers, this seventh in the series is set in Portland, my home town. (It is great to rea
d about locations I travel weekly, or even daily.) Lockwood is a defense attorney and former MMA up-and-comer. And here, Margolin meshes the MMA and the legal aspects of Lockwood's life explicitly.

This story involves Mandy Kerrigan a former MMA world champion and the fighter who ended Lockwood's fighting career ten years previously. In fact, we get some insight into the backstory of that bout and how it turned Lockwood towards her legal ambitions. In present day, after a fight in Portland that Lockwood attends with her new boyfriend, an assitant DA, Kerrigan finds herself accused of a multiple homicide. With no money and no one else to turn to, she asks Lockwood to be her lawyer. With Lockwood's boyfriend prosecuting the case, these two face off with only possible winner.

Margolin does a great job of character development throughout, and a solid plot that keeps things interesting, through the courtroom dazzle, right up to the last minute reveal at the 13th hour. Mixing drugs, Russian mobsters, and murder, even throwing in a little special forces action, this is a great read and a deserved addition to the Lockwood canon.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Friday, June 30, 2023

Book Review: Lone Wolf

 Title: Lone Wolf

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: February 13 2024
Rating: 5 out of 5

Book 9 in the Orphan X series starts
off with a whimper of a mission: find a missing dog! Not the normal sort of life and death mission requiring the assistance from Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak. Indeed, I almost gave up, but the presence or a female ninja lone wolf assassin piqued my interest. I'm glad I stuck with it, as it got better and quickly.

After 8 books of lethal, don't-make--it-personal retributional missions and killings, Smoak faces his toughest challenge: meeting family and dealing with feelings. This is by far the most personal and evolutionary book in this series, and it shows both Evsn and his young female side-kick Joey grappling and ultimately coming to terms with their humanity. They are more than just killing machines. One of the trickiest issues here is the presidency of the HOA where Evan lives and he has to act as an intermediary negotiator, using words not weapons. This is well worth a read, especially if you are all caught up with the orphans.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Book Review: Fear the Silence





Title: Fear the Silence
Author: Robert Bryndza
Publisher: Raven Street Publishing
Publication Date: July 6 2023
Rating: 5 out of 5

The premise is simple.  ER room doctor Maggie is confronted with her own husband Will's unexpected and unexplained suicide. Everything points to him having taken his own life. But she can't accept this. When she goes to clear out their vacation home on a remote Croatian island after the end of tourist season, clues start to emerge that there were secrets Will was keeping from her. And the powerful person whose secret could be devastating will go to any length to prevent this from happening.

Wow, what a fantastic suspense thriller. It took me by the throat from the first page and never let up. With each twist, when I thought the heroine was going to break through, it just got worse. Every situation seemed more hopeless than the last. Until the twist at the end. I'd never read a book by Bryndza before, but it's safe to say this won't be my last. This is well worth your time, unless you fear the silence. 

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 
10 Book Reviews
Professional Reader
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Saturday, April 29, 2023

Book Review: The Stranger Upstairs

 Title: The Stranger Upstairs

Author: Lisa Matlin
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: September 26 2023
Rating: 5 out of 5

Sarah Slade, a therapist and influencer, buys a Victorian house in a small Australian community, envisioning renovating it, sharing progress on her feed, turning a quick profit, and getting lots of endorsements. But the house was the scene of a brutal murder 40 years ago and has all the hallmarks of classic horror mansion. When the improvements start going wrong, and her marriage starts to crumble, Sarah starts to mentally disintegrate. Who or what is leaving her notes?

Billed as a psychological thriller, this veers more to the horror genre. The book oozes dread throughout, and with each page turned more hidden secrets are exposed. I didn't see the end coming. That's the sign of a great story.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Book Review: Simply Lies

 Title: Simply Lies

Author: David Baldacci
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: April 18 2023
Rating: 5 out of 5

David Baldacci rarely pens a boring book. His new book is certainly no exception. A stand-alone thriller, he features two strong women lead characters. One is a former cop, now work-from-home mom. A private investigator, Mickey excels at finding hidden money. The other is a con artist and possibly murderer. When the latter, Clarisse, cons the former into taking a field-work trip to a remote mansion to document the owner's possessions, she discovers a hidden room with a dead body and a secret message. From this unexpected discovery. Mickey becomes forced to pursue her own investigation and its a race between the two to discover the murderer, the reason, and the hidden treasure. With plenty of plot twists and villains, Baldacci interweaves the story from both Mickey's and Clarissa's perspectives. The book grabbed from chapter one and kept me guessing, furiously turning pages, until the very end. Another sure-fire hit from this great author.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Friday, April 7, 2023

Book Review: Double Indemnity

Title: Double Indemnity
Author: Robert Whitlow
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: June 76 2023
Rating: 3 out of 5

I requested this ARC as it was billed as a legal thriller from a Christian author. I love courtroom thrillers and am a Christ
-follower, so it ticked all the boxes. But I found it to be slow and dull. I was expecting a trial mystery, but none of the action occurs in the courthouse. Certainly, one of the main characters is a young lawyer, but the protagonist is a young preacher. And it took way too long, in my opinion, to really take off. If I wasn't planning to write a review, I would have given up on this after the first 20%, which seemed to be background and character setting. 

Whitlow does weave Christian themes into the story, and I like how he deals with prayer and the presence of God. But there was more discussion of sermon topics than there was of murder, until close to the very end. I'll give his other books a try, but hope they are faster paced and more exciting than this.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Book Review: The Last Word


Title: The Last Word

Author: Taylor Adams 

Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: April 25, 2023

Rating: 5 out of 5

I was tempted to leave a 1-star rating for this book, but was afraid that Adams might search for me, find me, and seek homicidal revenge on me, like in the book! All kidding aside, this is 5-star winner. I loved his earlier thriller, No Exit, as one of my books of the year. This one is at least as good, possibly even better. It's the best book I've read so far in 2023.

The premise is simple: Emma Carpenter reads a cheap horror e-book and leaves its first rating on Amazon: 1-star. It is the worst book she's ever read. The author, surprisingly, replies asking her to remove the review. She doesn't, and he sets out to kill her. As she is house-sitting in a beach-front place in a secluded Washington State community, it becomes easy to cut her off from her others. And the scene is set. Heroine trapped alone without help, with a homicidal serial killer outside ready to break in and satisfy his sick urges. But there are secrets, slowly revealed throughout. And the twists and turns are so sudden and sharp I'm sure I got whiplash reading this book. Its fast-paced plot makes it a real page-turner. And just when you think you have it figured out, Adams throws another curve ball. You simply have to keep ready to the last word.

I am thankful to the publisher for a free advanced ready copy of this book and am happy to provide an honest and unbiased review.

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Book Review: Death Warning

 Title: Death Warning

Author: Andrew Barrett    

Publisher: The Ink Foundry
Publication Date: April 7, 2023

Rating: 4 out of 5

The latest Eddie Collins thriller starts with a bang: a body stabbed to death in a Yorkshire alleyway. Then within minutes there's another body. Suicide this time. Are they connected? Is it really suicide? As the bodies build up, Barrett takes us on a compelling and twisting journey to climax. Along the way, we meet a new character, Detective Sergeant Regan Parker and a new version of Collins: empathetic Eddie. For the first time, we see a softer Eddie, one who is willing to break the rules, not just for himself, but to help a grieving mother. I am not sure I like or believe this new Eddie. But we all grow or devolve in character. Definitely worth a read, if only to see Eddie behave more like a normal human.

Many thanks to the author. I received an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. 



Sunday, January 1, 2023

Top Reads of 2022

 I read 91 books in 2022, my highest total since I started logging books back in 2001. The oldest book I read was published in 2001 (Totally Bonsai) and the newest will be published in 2023 (What Have We Done). I rated 22 a 5/5, including the following books. These are the top ten books I read, in alphabetical order. Not surprisingly, most are crime/thriller but surprisingly three are science fiction, a genre I read as a teen but have moved away from until last year.

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (2003)
Not the sort of book I would have thought I would be reading in 2022, I came across this book in a Goodreads list of sci-fi murder mysteries. And this did not disappoint. Blending science fiction with crime noir, this is a unique crime thriller. Set centuries in the future when humanity can store our consciousness in a cortical stack at the base of the brain, the rich can set
up clones of themselves to use with their cortical stack and essentially live forever. When one of these Meths (Methuselahs) is found dead in his mansion, it is ruled as suicide. But his new clone hires an imprisoned detective, Takeshi Kovacs (this is the first of three books featuring this character), to be needlecast back to Earth and sleeved in a temporary body to solve this "crime". Was it suicide or murder? Nothing is as it seems in this tale.

Play Dead  by Ted Dekker (2021)
Part thriller, part science fiction, the latest adult novel by Dekker centers on virtual gaming. When two teenagers are found ritualistically mutilated in an Austin park they appear to be linked to the mysterious game called Play Dead. The evidence seems clear, as an autistic young man is arrested as the killer. But a journalist, Angie Channing, who specializes in true-crime and dabbles in immersive video gaming herself, is not convinced he is the killer. As her obsession with the truth plays out, what she uncovers is too dangerous to be exposed. Dekker's book provides a warning against the possible dangers of virtual gaming and virtual reality.

Redemption Point by Candace Fox (2019)
When I read this, I didn't realize it was the second book in the Crimson Lake Trilogy. It is indeed the direct sequel to Crimson Lake, in which police detective Ted Conkaffrey is arrested and accused of abducting and murdering a young girl. Now released from prison not proven guilty but with the stigma of guilt all over him, Ted has moved to Crimson Lake, a woe-begotten town in the depths of Queensland. In this town two young bartenders are killed and Ted is dragged into the investigation by Amanda Pharrell, an ex-con murdered-turned detective. Throw in the father of the abducted girl from book one who now wants revenge on Ted, and you have the setting for a compulsive slow-burn crime novel.

The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci (2022)
Baldacci has produced so many great characters and great series, and seems to move on to a new one at the just right time. This is his latest and features a new hero, Travis Devine, a former soldier turned financial analyst living in the suburbs outside New York. Every day he commutes on the 6:20am train into Manhattan where he is an entry-level analyst. But one day, a former girlfriend and co-worker, Sara Ewes, is found hanging in a storage work at this work. An obvious suicide, yet Devine gets a text about her death before the police. And he is visited by a military intelligence officer who coerces Devine into conducting a clandestine investigation into the killing. In this high-stakes conspiracy thriller, Devine finds himself run
ning out of time while being in the bulls-eye of the unknown killer. Baldaci has a sure-fire new series success on his hands.  


The Handler 
by M.P. Woodward (2022)
Here's a CIA thriller with a twist: the CIA operative is disgraced and no longer working for the government. When a CIA mole in the Iranian uranium enrichment programs wants out, the only person he will trust to get him out is John Dale, the disgraced spy. And the only person who the CIA wants to handle John is Meredith Morris-Dale, Dale's ex-wife.  Relationships, Russian interference and rogue spies intertwine in this complex thriller.

The Last Party by Claire Mackintosh (2022)
One of the last books I read last year, partly because it was only published in November, Welsh writer Mackintosh sets her murder mystery by a lake that spans the borders of Wales and England. Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests on New Year's Eve and then turns up dead in the lake the next day. With so many people at the party, both from the Welsh village and the handful of expensive vacation cottages at The Shore, Lloyd's development, who is the killer. Mackintosh interweaves chapters from before New Year's Eve with chapters afterward as Welsh Police Detective Ffion Morgan working with English Detective Leo Brady strive to solve the case. What complicates the matter is that almost everyone had a reason for wanting Rhys dead. There are many twists and turns all the way to the very end. I can't wait for book 2 in the DC Morgan series.

The Lies I Tell  by Julie Clark (2022)
When con-woman Meg Williams returns home after ten years, Kat Roberts is waiting. Meg Williams has spent the last decade morphing into verious guises, Maggie Littleton, Melody Wilde, etc., all with one aim: to ease herself into someone's life and walk away with that person's money. But ten years' ago a phone call from her ruined Kat's life. Now she will do what sh
e must, to get close to Meg. With both women telling lies and playing a game of cat and mouse, this domestic thriller slowly reveals what lies behind Meg's cons. Who is being conned by whom? And why? Who is seeking justice and who is being played? There is s much going on in this twisted tale.


The Professionals by Owen Laukkanen (2012)
This has a great premise: four students graduate college and then realize the job market is so grim they cannot earn enough to pay back their student debt. But they come up with an alternative: kidnap to survive. By careful targeting and low ransom demands, and moving state to state, they stay off the FBI map. That is, until they target the wrong man with  mob connections. With the kidnap gone wrong, they devolve into murder bringing in FBI Agent Carla Windermere who becomes unwittingly partnered with Minnesota State Investigator Kirk Stevens. This is the first book in the Stevens and Windermere series, and is still one of its best. If you like crime thrillers, check out this book and then the rest in the series.



Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (2022)
This was the first Pavone book I read and it wasn't the last in 2022. A woman in Lisbon in a hotel wakes to an empty bed. Her husband missing, no note and he is not answering his phone. With the police not taking his disappearance seriously, and neither the American Embassy, Ariel Pryce has investigate for herself. But she realizes she doesn't really know what her husband is doing in Lisbon or why he brought her along. With time running out, Ariel must turn to the only person who can help, the person she has been running from. This is a great international thriller, taut with tension, a real page-turner.


Upgrade by Blake Crouch (2022)
Perhaps the best book I read in 2022, this sci-fi thriller focuses on gene splicing, DNA manipulation. The protagonist, Logan Ramsey, finds himself thinking sharper, reading better, seeing better. At first he explains it away, but finally he cannot deny it: his genome has been hacked and he has been upgraded. But what has happened to him is part of a much larger plan, and he cannot escape. His only choice is to fight fire with fire. Balancing a thriller with ethical discussion about gene engineering, Crouch posits the future evolution of the human race. 





The very last book I read in 2022, finished yesterday on New Year's Eve, was another science fiction book that I rated a 5/5. And I'm adding it as a bonus, as it feels like a great fit to this list.

Lock In by John Scalzi (2014)
Another murder/suicide sci-fi mystery, this one set in the not too distant future after a global viral pandemic (sound familiar?). This virus left millions dead, but also millions that survived had their brains changed to be locked in, unable to move or communicate with the physical world. These victims were known as Haydens after the syndrome. Others, Inegrators, survived with their brains changed in ways that allowed them to host these Haydens and allow them to temporarily take control of a physical body and experience the world again (or for the first time). When a man is found dead in a hotel room alongside a blood-soaked Integrator, the FBI is called into investigate. What seems cut and dried at first, unravels into a complicated conspiracy with the virtual world of the locked at stake.