Author: John Scalzi
Narrator: Zachary Quinto
Publisher: Audible Originals
Publication Date: October 2016
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Buy the Book: Amazon | Audible
Description: One day, not long from now, it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone - 999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. How? We don't know. But it changes everything: war, crime, daily life.
Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher - a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those whose circumstances put them in death's crosshairs, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. But when a fellow Dispatcher and former friend is apparently kidnapped, Tony learns that there are some things that are worse than death and that some people are ready to do almost anything to avenge a supposed wrong.
It's a race against time for Valdez to find his friend before it's too late...before not even a Dispatcher can save him.
My Thoughts: Interesting story premise that executed well with a fantastic audio narration by Zachary Quinto. Imagine a society where murder is virtually impossible to commit. 99.99% of the time, murder victims return no worse off. Nobody knows how or why and in cases of accidents, disease or natural causes, the dead stay dead. Tony Valdez is a dispatcher. His job is to kill people who are close to death to give them another chance. When Tony learns one of his colleagues has been kidnapped, he finds himself working with the Chicago Police Department to find him.
At first, I thought, so what if he doesn’t find him? If he dies, he’ll show up back at home, no harm, no foul. However, with most things in life, there are loopholes, which I will not disclose here as it would ruin the story for you.
I enjoyed the story and meeting Tony and Detective Langdon. Their initial mutual mistrust and eventual grudging respect played very well. Tony’s initial reluctance to get involved made sense as his line of work hovers over a very thin line bordering on the illegal. It’s not really in his best interests to work with the police, but he knows that he is his friend’s only hope.
This is the first book in a series and just based on the events portrayed in this one, I recommend the series be read in order.
My Final Verdict: I recommend this story be read in audio format as Zachary Quinto delivers a stellar performance, employing the right amount of emotion and tension in his narrative. Readers who enjoy thrillers and police procedural stories should pick this one up.
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