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Quarantined
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.
206 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2009
18 people are currently reading
1001 people want to read
About the author
Joe McKinney
112 books667 followersJoe McKinney has been a patrol officer for the San Antonio Police Department, a homicide detective, a disaster mitigation specialist, a patrol commander, and a successful novelist. His books include the four part Dead World series, Quarantined and Dodging Bullets. His short fiction has been collected in The Red Empire and Other Stories and Dating in Dead World and Other Stories. For more information go to http://joemckinney.wordpress.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
October 26, 2015
There are no zombies in this book. It seems like there should be, considering that this is a book about a plague, and the author writes other zombie books, but this is just your normal super bird-flu outbreak that goes apocalyptic... or at least it does in San Antonio, Texas.
As I was reading this, I couldn't help but think about two other books which have some similarities.
First, of course, is The Stand. There we have a superflu outbreak, though with a much, much higher mortality rate (99.4% if I remember correctly, vs 18% here), but what I kept thinking of was the methods used to try to contain the outbreak. Obviously, in The Stand, that had to be unsuccessful, or the larger story of the good vs evil would not be possible, but I did wonder how it was done SO successfully in this book. In this book, they used a wall (originally constructed for the US/Mexico border and re-purposed) for contagion control. I just don't see how NOBODY made it out before the perimeter was in place. San Antonio is a big city, with a lot of people, and quarantine seems like it would be difficult to manage perfectly.
Of course, this story is taking place months after the quarantine is in place and patrolled vigilantly and ruthlessly, so maybe there were breaches in the beginning and now the system is in place and rolling along smoothly just letting peoples' fear of being killed outright keep them from trying to escape. But I remember the scenes from The Stand, where the military officials in charge of containment failed so spectacularly and it seems to me that it would be much harder than this book makes it seem.
The second book that I kept thinking about as I read this was The Last Policeman. Both that book and this one feature a police officer investigating a murder in a kind of end-of-the-world setting. TLP has a meteor hurtling toward Earth as the impending doom, and this one has a superflu, but both have people who are trying to do their jobs while in the midst of chaos. And both were told from first person narration.
Honestly, I think this book was far more successful than TLP was, for a number of reasons. For one, I felt that the details about the investigation in Quarantined were more realistic and accurate than the way that Winters portrayed his investigation, including the main character/protagonist and their thoughts and rationale and logic processes. I think this could be due to the fact that Winters' protagonist was a rookie whereas McKinney's was not, but the whole investigation aspect of TLP just didn't work for me. I did not have that problem with this book. This may have something to do with the fact that McKinney was in law enforcement himself, a fact I learned after finishing this book and viewing his author page to see what else he's written, but overall, I think it was just that TLP was a bit too fantastical for my tastes. It was supposed to be a murder investigation occurring in a pre-apocalyptic setting, but it just felt a bit outlandish at times. It just didn't work for me.
I really felt like the investigation, and the tone of the story, was just well handled in Quarantined, and felt professional and real. It's how I would imagine an investigation in such circumstances may really go.
Speaking of realism, the H2N2 superflu device was very well handled here. I loved how it was both the setting and critical to the investigation, so it didn't feel superfluous (see what I did there?) to the story, but integral. The science and politics surrounding the flu were plausible and worked, and added to the overall feeling of "This could really happen, and this is what it could look like."
I liked the characters in this book, and felt that they were all realistic and interesting, considering that they were living in a purgatory of sorts. I would have liked a bit more to Billy, main character Lily's husband. (Also, Lily and Billy kinda took me out of things a bit. I wish authors would think about stuff like that. Or at least mention it somehow - like how he prefers most people to call him Bill but she calls him Billy because she likes how their names rhyme or something.) Billy is something of a supporting character here, but his influence is vital to Lily's character arc, so I would really have loved to see a bit more from him.
I was a bit ambivalent about the audiobook reader, though. I mostly liked her reading, but there were some characters and sentences that I think she should have read differently, to give them a different connotation. If anything, she seemed a bit... eager. I like a more subdued reader.
But, as a whole, I'm actually pretty pleasantly surprised by this book. I enjoyed it quite a lot and will be checking out more of McKinney's work.
As I was reading this, I couldn't help but think about two other books which have some similarities.
First, of course, is The Stand. There we have a superflu outbreak, though with a much, much higher mortality rate (99.4% if I remember correctly, vs 18% here), but what I kept thinking of was the methods used to try to contain the outbreak. Obviously, in The Stand, that had to be unsuccessful, or the larger story of the good vs evil would not be possible, but I did wonder how it was done SO successfully in this book. In this book, they used a wall (originally constructed for the US/Mexico border and re-purposed) for contagion control. I just don't see how NOBODY made it out before the perimeter was in place. San Antonio is a big city, with a lot of people, and quarantine seems like it would be difficult to manage perfectly.
Of course, this story is taking place months after the quarantine is in place and patrolled vigilantly and ruthlessly, so maybe there were breaches in the beginning and now the system is in place and rolling along smoothly just letting peoples' fear of being killed outright keep them from trying to escape. But I remember the scenes from The Stand, where the military officials in charge of containment failed so spectacularly and it seems to me that it would be much harder than this book makes it seem.
The second book that I kept thinking about as I read this was The Last Policeman. Both that book and this one feature a police officer investigating a murder in a kind of end-of-the-world setting. TLP has a meteor hurtling toward Earth as the impending doom, and this one has a superflu, but both have people who are trying to do their jobs while in the midst of chaos. And both were told from first person narration.
Honestly, I think this book was far more successful than TLP was, for a number of reasons. For one, I felt that the details about the investigation in Quarantined were more realistic and accurate than the way that Winters portrayed his investigation, including the main character/protagonist and their thoughts and rationale and logic processes. I think this could be due to the fact that Winters' protagonist was a rookie whereas McKinney's was not, but the whole investigation aspect of TLP just didn't work for me. I did not have that problem with this book. This may have something to do with the fact that McKinney was in law enforcement himself, a fact I learned after finishing this book and viewing his author page to see what else he's written, but overall, I think it was just that TLP was a bit too fantastical for my tastes. It was supposed to be a murder investigation occurring in a pre-apocalyptic setting, but it just felt a bit outlandish at times. It just didn't work for me.
I really felt like the investigation, and the tone of the story, was just well handled in Quarantined, and felt professional and real. It's how I would imagine an investigation in such circumstances may really go.
Speaking of realism, the H2N2 superflu device was very well handled here. I loved how it was both the setting and critical to the investigation, so it didn't feel superfluous (see what I did there?) to the story, but integral. The science and politics surrounding the flu were plausible and worked, and added to the overall feeling of "This could really happen, and this is what it could look like."
I liked the characters in this book, and felt that they were all realistic and interesting, considering that they were living in a purgatory of sorts. I would have liked a bit more to Billy, main character Lily's husband. (Also, Lily and Billy kinda took me out of things a bit. I wish authors would think about stuff like that. Or at least mention it somehow - like how he prefers most people to call him Bill but she calls him Billy because she likes how their names rhyme or something.) Bill
I was a bit ambivalent about the audiobook reader, though. I mostly liked her reading, but there were some characters and sentences that I think she should have read differently, to give them a different connotation. If anything, she seemed a bit... eager. I like a more subdued reader.
But, as a whole, I'm actually pretty pleasantly surprised by this book. I enjoyed it quite a lot and will be checking out more of McKinney's work.
June 5, 2022
Май попаднах на единствената книга на Маккинли без зомбита. Няма значение.
Ситуацията е следната. След избухване на изключително вирулентен щам на птичия грип, Сан Антонио е затворен с голяма стена, явно приготвяна за мексиканската граница от преди време. Вътре зад стената е лошо, много лошо. Купонен режим, ограничения, смърт, параноя. На този фон нашите двама полицаи трябва да разкрият убийство, извършено в най-заразената част. Утежняващите обстоятелства са, че жертвата е научен работник, изследващ мутациите на вируса.
Честно, ако го бях прочел преди примерно четири години щях да го класифицирам като средняшка фантастика. Сега, нивото на параноята, предпазните мерки и меренето на пишки между здравните организации ми се виждат на 100 % реалистични. Маккини е полицай, работил отблизо с подобни проблеми и знае материята си. А и е жител на Сам Антонио, което допринася за бруталната достоверност.
Все пак не очаквайте откровения или някакви тотални сюжетни развития. Ако го приемете за научен трилър с криминална жилка ще получите 4-5 часа кеф от четенето. Средата малко забавя действието, което дразни, но не безкрайно.
Ситуацията е следната. След избухване на изключително вирулентен щам на птичия грип, Сан Антонио е затворен с голяма стена, явно приготвяна за мексиканската граница от преди време. Вътре зад стената е лошо, много лошо. Купонен режим, ограничения, смърт, параноя. На този фон нашите двама полицаи трябва да разкрият убийство, извършено в най-заразената част. Утежняващите обстоятелства са, че жертвата е научен работник, изследващ мутациите на вируса.
Честно, ако го бях прочел преди примерно четири години щях да го класифицирам като средняшка фантастика. Сега, нивото на параноята, предпазните мерки и меренето на пишки между здравните организации ми се виждат на 100 % реалистични. Маккини е полицай, работил отблизо с подобни проблеми и знае материята си. А и е жител на Сам Антонио, което допринася за бруталната достоверност.
Все пак не очаквайте откровения или някакви тотални сюжетни развития. Ако го приемете за научен трилър с криминална жилка ще получите 4-5 часа кеф от четенето. Средата малко забавя действието, което дразни, но не безкрайно.
June 29, 2011
This dark drama/thriller by author Joe McKinney is an exceptional read. The book's plague-infested environment, filled with danger and chaos, and with such striking emotion, has never been told quite like this before. The author's law enforcement background gives the writing a realistic authenticity to the language and details without bogging it down with overly technical descriptions and police procedures. McKinney uses a wonderful balance between character and story, constantly building the tension to unbearable heights. There are moments so suspenseful, I actually caught myself holding my breath on a few occasions, especially towards the end.
Perhaps even more impressive than this story is the fact that this is only McKinney's second novel, his first being the zombie book, Dead City. If this is any indication of this author's learning curve, I absolutely can't wait to see what he writes next. Horror fans should be cautioned, however, that this is more a drama/thriller with an element of mystery, so be prepared. That being said, this book should please any reader looking for a fresh and original story involving an extremely deadly plague in America. Deeply drawn characters, tight meaningful dialogue, and well-paced suspense is what you're guaranteed to find with Quarantined.
Perhaps even more impressive than this story is the fact that this is only McKinney's second novel, his first being the zombie book, Dead City. If this is any indication of this author's learning curve, I absolutely can't wait to see what he writes next. Horror fans should be cautioned, however, that this is more a drama/thriller with an element of mystery, so be prepared. That being said, this book should please any reader looking for a fresh and original story involving an extremely deadly plague in America. Deeply drawn characters, tight meaningful dialogue, and well-paced suspense is what you're guaranteed to find with Quarantined.
August 10, 2011
It started off well, I like realistic doomsday plots, and the thought of a city being cut off from the rest of the nation to stem an outbreak of a deadly flu seems just plausible enough to suck you in.
All was going well until I noticed how short the novel was. Then the wild goose chases and the riot scenes started to worry me.
An unexpected proposition from a character sealed the books fate- it felt like the author had run out of time and needed to make a hasty end chapter to finish the book. The end came suddenly, that you feel ripped off as a reader for such a tactless ending.
All was going well until I noticed how short the novel was. Then the wild goose chases and the riot scenes started to worry me.
An unexpected proposition from a character sealed the books fate- it felt like the author had run out of time and needed to make a hasty end chapter to finish the book. The end came suddenly, that you feel ripped off as a reader for such a tactless ending.
May 2, 2020
This month several "pick for me" challenges chose this book for me to read. Huh..imagine that. It is kinda ironic in a sense that this was reading like non fiction of our current situation. All we seem to be missing is that this is not just contained to one area. So here is what we have:
A virus sorta like the flu, but 100x's more deadly.
A pandemic
Facemasks
Social distancing that butt loads of people are ignoring.
Shortages of important items (You missed the toilet paper shortage Joe. How did you miss that?
First responders still hard at work.
Protests
An administration trying to hide important information from the public and lying.
Small children not understanding why everything has changed so suddenly.
I might have missed a few other details, but these are the more important ones.
We have 2 Detectives, Chunk and Lily, who discover the dead body of a WHO researcher that is not like the load of dead bodies going into the Scar (a place where mass burials occur because the city is overwhelmed by the number of dead) This body has a bullet hole in her chest. So begins the search for her killer. Lily and Chunk stumble upon some information that they were not intended to know.
This is a fairly short novel, but is quite, I wanna say enjoyable, but not sure if that is the correct term I should be using. I think well written, fast paced, and perceptive are the terms I should be using right now.
The ending has a bit of a cliff hanger..sort of. That's why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. IMO, I think it could have been fleshed out more, but it kinda leaves you hanging wanting to know just a little bit more.
A virus sorta like the flu, but 100x's more deadly.
A pandemic
Facemasks
Social distancing that butt loads of people are ignoring.
Shortages of important items (You missed the toilet paper shortage Joe. How did you miss that?
First responders still hard at work.
Protests
An administration trying to hide important information from the public and lying.
Small children not understanding why everything has changed so suddenly.
I might have missed a few other details, but these are the more important ones.
We have 2 Detectives, Chunk and Lily, who discover the dead body of a WHO researcher that is not like the load of dead bodies going into the Scar (a place where mass burials occur because the city is overwhelmed by the number of dead) This body has a bullet hole in her chest. So begins the search for her killer. Lily and Chunk stumble upon some information that they were not intended to know.
This is a fairly short novel, but is quite, I wanna say enjoyable, but not sure if that is the correct term I should be using. I think well written, fast paced, and perceptive are the terms I should be using right now.
The ending has a bit of a cliff hanger..sort of. That's why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. IMO, I think it could have been fleshed out more, but it kinda leaves you hanging wanting to know just a little bit more.
March 25, 2017
So disappointing. This was the first book in my recently purchased (for 99 cents!) Ultimate Undead Collection: Zombie Apocalypse Best Sellers (set of 10 books), and there were no Zombies in it! Instead it was a small scale flu-related post-apocalyptic crime novel. The story follows a pair of detectives trying to solve a murder in a quarantined town. Initially I thought the main character was male based on the inner dialogue and was totally surprised when I realized she was actually female. I was also thrown by the homophobic language which was very distracting and offensive. And the characters all seemed to be contradictory or sterotypical. Here's hoping I enjoy the other 9 books more and that they actually have Zombies in them!
December 24, 2012
This is what "apocalyptic" really signifies:(
Review of Quarantined by Joe McKinney
I really enjoyed this book, despite the Dystopian framework which I found very depressing. The condition of San Antonio during this time period reminded me of what I’d read about Beirut. It’s terrifying that such a situation is potentially very possible, as many novelists and short-story writers have suggested in regard to plagues.
Author Joe McKinney has a special touch (witness, for example, “Inheritance”) and here it applies to a more or less straightforward murder mystery/police procedural. Detectives Lily Harris and her partner Reginald “Chunk” Dempsey (you’ll figure out why the nickname early on) are on Scar detail following the H2N2 influenza plague in San Antonio, a city literally under quarantine: locked inside containing walls, perpetually short of food and supplies, repeatedly looted and burned, with tens of thousands dead and more dying every day. When a body turns up on a transport which is unaccounted for, then proves to be one of the World Health Organisation doctors, mystery upon mystery begins to unfold. Meanwhile, Lily feels the pressure ever more, as she dreams of a “real life” for her five-year-old daughter Connie and her husband Billy and herself.
Review of Quarantined by Joe McKinney
I really enjoyed this book, despite the Dystopian framework which I found very depressing. The condition of San Antonio during this time period reminded me of what I’d read about Beirut. It’s terrifying that such a situation is potentially very possible, as many novelists and short-story writers have suggested in regard to plagues.
Author Joe McKinney has a special touch (witness, for example, “Inheritance”) and here it applies to a more or less straightforward murder mystery/police procedural. Detectives Lily Harris and her partner Reginald “Chunk” Dempsey (you’ll figure out why the nickname early on) are on Scar detail following the H2N2 influenza plague in San Antonio, a city literally under quarantine: locked inside containing walls, perpetually short of food and supplies, repeatedly looted and burned, with tens of thousands dead and more dying every day. When a body turns up on a transport which is unaccounted for, then proves to be one of the World Health Organisation doctors, mystery upon mystery begins to unfold. Meanwhile, Lily feels the pressure ever more, as she dreams of a “real life” for her five-year-old daughter Connie and her husband Billy and herself.
May 28, 2011
Good novel combining the hard-nosed detective tale with a nail-biting science fiction thriller. I liked the realistic overtones. I could imagine this sort of scenario if an uncontrollable epidemic did break out in a major city. I was not so thrilled with the mystery aspect which was too simple and too easily solved for my taste. Nonetheless it was an enjoyable read and good enough to check out other novels by the author.
May 20, 2019
I couldn’t help but groan when I read “fully automatic AR-15”
January 16, 2012
I honestly can't remember the last time I read a non-post-apocalyptic book. I think it might have been last summer, but it may have been the summer before that. It's not that I hate anything that doesn't involve the end of the world, far from it, but I just have so many PA books in my collection, with more being sent to me all the time, that I feel like I have to get through those first.
So when I checked my email the other day and found that the folks at Permuted Press had sent me a copy of Quarantined by Joe McKinney for review, it turned out to be kind of a surprise in two ways.
First of all, I was in-between books, and found myself in the mood for a plague story, something at the outbreak stage, and Quarantined sounded like exactly what I was looking for.
Quarantined is set in San Antonio in the months following the reappearance of a particular strain of the flu, a strain so virulent that the government takes the drastic action of surrounding the city with 190 miles of wall, sealing the surviving citizens in with the sick, and the dead. It's when one of those dead doesn't look exactly right that Homicide Detective Lily Harris and her partner start an investigation that leads them to answers they were never expecting to find.
That leads to the second sort-of surprise; the book isn't really that post-apocalyptic. Yes, we're told that this deadly new flu is killing about 25,000 people per month, schools are closed and public gatherings are prohibited, and the population lives in constant fear of infection, rioting at the lack of basic supplies, believing they've been abandoned by the rest of their country.
But even so, all of that isn't so much the focus of the book as it is the backdrop; the story is really kind of a classic murder-mystery-leads-to-a-broader-conspiracy cop novel. The story is narrated in the first person by Detective Harris, and as I was reading I kept wondering if the author was a female police officer, because all of the details felt spot on, and it turns out that I was half right.
Joe is definitely a guy, but he is, in fact, a Homicide Detective with the San Antonio PD, so he was really able to fill his story with authentic details about the procedures involved in a murder investigation. And as he is himself a member of one of the agencies that are portrayed in the book, he has a good feel for the kinds of competition and infighting that goes on in the real world, and that when combined with a deadly super-flu could lead to the deaths of thousands.
So overall, although Quarantined didn't turn out to be exactly the kind of story I thought it was, that wasn't a negative at all. It was cool to be able to read the kind of book that normal people read, but have it have just enough spice to keep a PA nerd like me entertained. And Quarantined is definitely entertaining, whether you're looking for a read that includes the end of the world, or not.
So when I checked my email the other day and found that the folks at Permuted Press had sent me a copy of Quarantined by Joe McKinney for review, it turned out to be kind of a surprise in two ways.
First of all, I was in-between books, and found myself in the mood for a plague story, something at the outbreak stage, and Quarantined sounded like exactly what I was looking for.
Quarantined is set in San Antonio in the months following the reappearance of a particular strain of the flu, a strain so virulent that the government takes the drastic action of surrounding the city with 190 miles of wall, sealing the surviving citizens in with the sick, and the dead. It's when one of those dead doesn't look exactly right that Homicide Detective Lily Harris and her partner start an investigation that leads them to answers they were never expecting to find.
That leads to the second sort-of surprise; the book isn't really that post-apocalyptic. Yes, we're told that this deadly new flu is killing about 25,000 people per month, schools are closed and public gatherings are prohibited, and the population lives in constant fear of infection, rioting at the lack of basic supplies, believing they've been abandoned by the rest of their country.
But even so, all of that isn't so much the focus of the book as it is the backdrop; the story is really kind of a classic murder-mystery-leads-to-a-broader-conspiracy cop novel. The story is narrated in the first person by Detective Harris, and as I was reading I kept wondering if the author was a female police officer, because all of the details felt spot on, and it turns out that I was half right.
Joe is definitely a guy, but he is, in fact, a Homicide Detective with the San Antonio PD, so he was really able to fill his story with authentic details about the procedures involved in a murder investigation. And as he is himself a member of one of the agencies that are portrayed in the book, he has a good feel for the kinds of competition and infighting that goes on in the real world, and that when combined with a deadly super-flu could lead to the deaths of thousands.
So overall, although Quarantined didn't turn out to be exactly the kind of story I thought it was, that wasn't a negative at all. It was cool to be able to read the kind of book that normal people read, but have it have just enough spice to keep a PA nerd like me entertained. And Quarantined is definitely entertaining, whether you're looking for a read that includes the end of the world, or not.
April 4, 2021
Not as good as McKinney's other work
I have read and enjoyed several of McKinney's other works. They were easy reads with common plots: heroic police officer and family trying to survive a zombie apocalypse in their walled in Texas city. For the most part, his main characters are likable. I figured this book would be the same. It started out promising, a female detective and her partner trying to solve the murder of a virus researcher and her bodyguard within a quarantined San Antonio, in the midst of a deadly outbreak. There are no zombies in this book, but that was fine as the emphasis was more on solving this mystery. The good story soon devolved into stereotypes and very unlikable characters. Detective Lily and her partner managed to hit every negative stereotype of gay men, plus sized women, scientists, and Middle Eastern men. At the same time as she and her tough cowboy husband claim their neighbors as "saints", they bash them as weakling liberals. We get it Detective Lily, you don't like gay people, scientists , liberals or overweight people. It made it hard to sympathize with her or her husband's p!ight. I just wanted the little girl to survive, that was it. I was surprised that McKinney would reduce his main character to a stereotypical closed minded backwoods Texan. His other main characters are usually very likable. Such unlikable characters distracted from the story. The ending was a!so very rushed.
If you're a Joe McKinney fan, I would pass on this one. His other works like Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead and Flesh Eaters are much better.
I have read and enjoyed several of McKinney's other works. They were easy reads with common plots: heroic police officer and family trying to survive a zombie apocalypse in their walled in Texas city. For the most part, his main characters are likable. I figured this book would be the same. It started out promising, a female detective and her partner trying to solve the murder of a virus researcher and her bodyguard within a quarantined San Antonio, in the midst of a deadly outbreak. There are no zombies in this book, but that was fine as the emphasis was more on solving this mystery. The good story soon devolved into stereotypes and very unlikable characters. Detective Lily and her partner managed to hit every negative stereotype of gay men, plus sized women, scientists, and Middle Eastern men. At the same time as she and her tough cowboy husband claim their neighbors as "saints", they bash them as weakling liberals. We get it Detective Lily, you don't like gay people, scientists , liberals or overweight people. It made it hard to sympathize with her or her husband's p!ight. I just wanted the little girl to survive, that was it. I was surprised that McKinney would reduce his main character to a stereotypical closed minded backwoods Texan. His other main characters are usually very likable. Such unlikable characters distracted from the story. The ending was a!so very rushed.
If you're a Joe McKinney fan, I would pass on this one. His other works like Dead City, Apocalypse of the Dead and Flesh Eaters are much better.
August 2, 2017
I finished this book last night, and thought about it all day today. I kept dodging birds and bird poop, watching the sky like some weird colorized version of Hitchcock's "The Birds." What is truly terrifying about this story, a dark suspenseful thriller of a murder mystery, is that it is quite real and could actually happen. No zombies here, just a mass infection of H2N2, a new, highly infectious flu strain with a 20% mortality rate. The new virus is passed from avian to human hosts, and has set up shop in San Antonio in the summer time. The story is narrated by Lily, an adept police detective. Her life consists of her family - a husband and young daughter, and her partner, Chunk. I enjoyed the story and the characters immensely, and will most definitely read more stories by McKinney. Very excellent story.
February 3, 2015
I started this book with the thought that it was going to be a zombie novel. I read on and on waiting for the zombies to rise and take over. They never did... Instead, I was thrown into a world with murder, mystery, corruption and an epidemic. It didn't lay to much into the ground work that got me a little confused halfway in the book. it made me question their environment, their situation, the issur but never got the answers. The mystery was intriguing and the theme and the way people responded to drop in infrastructure, limited supplies and power struggle between the government and the people seemed quite plausible. Even though there seemed to be plot holes and stories that didn't get finished.
March 4, 2015
In a 10 book collection of Undead books, there were no freaking zombies! More like a warped version of the movie Contagion mixed with an episode of law and order. I hate both. There were a bunch of negative stereotypes I don't know and then republicans were taken up for in this book...who in their right mind. Last but not least the word faggish? Really?
July 21, 2012
DNF. This is not what I expected. I'm bored out of my mind by the police procedural, murder mystery that's going on.
July 5, 2014
Bored me out of my mind. Another one to the DNF pile.
November 27, 2016
Quarantined is something of a departure for author Joe McKinney, who is best known for his series of zombie novels starting with Dead City, but some of the themes remain the same. McKinney tells the story of a flu pandemic outbreak in a major American city and the government's attempts to contain the disease, which will resonate with fans of the zombie genre.
More than just an "outbreak" novel, Quarantined has a Law & Order aspect, focusing on a pair of homicide detectives in a walled-off San Antonio who are trying to solve a murder while at the same time take care of themselves and their loved ones in a situation that's rapidly deteriorating. Throughout the course of their investigation, McKinney provides some background on how the pandemic started, the level of casualties, the extreme nature of the government's response, and what might be next for the citizens of San Antonio and the rest of the world.
Some of the ideas in the book are tough to accept. Would the population of a city that large really allow themselves to be fenced in like that? What about San Antonio's significant military presence? Were they quarantined as well? If so, why weren't they providing some crowd control if the police weren't up to the task? If you can shrug some of these details off, Quarantined is a satisfying read. Even without the walking dead, the threat presented in Quarantined is horrifying enough. It helps that McKinney writes compelling characters and believable dialogue, and sets a brisk pace that's perfect for the age of the police procedural. Given the subject matter, it's hard to call this a "light" read, but it's the kind of fast-paced adventure that's perfect for airplane trips or while you're taking a break between longer series.
More than just an "outbreak" novel, Quarantined has a Law & Order aspect, focusing on a pair of homicide detectives in a walled-off San Antonio who are trying to solve a murder while at the same time take care of themselves and their loved ones in a situation that's rapidly deteriorating. Throughout the course of their investigation, McKinney provides some background on how the pandemic started, the level of casualties, the extreme nature of the government's response, and what might be next for the citizens of San Antonio and the rest of the world.
Some of the ideas in the book are tough to accept. Would the population of a city that large really allow themselves to be fenced in like that? What about San Antonio's significant military presence? Were they quarantined as well? If so, why weren't they providing some crowd control if the police weren't up to the task? If you can shrug some of these details off, Quarantined is a satisfying read. Even without the walking dead, the threat presented in Quarantined is horrifying enough. It helps that McKinney writes compelling characters and believable dialogue, and sets a brisk pace that's perfect for the age of the police procedural. Given the subject matter, it's hard to call this a "light" read, but it's the kind of fast-paced adventure that's perfect for airplane trips or while you're taking a break between longer series.
December 12, 2024
Build the wall, they said... Well, build the wall around the city of San Antonio after a deadly resurgence of influenza kills enough of the city that they're excavating mass public graves and feeding people by intermodal air drop, at least.
Damn. I enjoy a good medical thriller, and while this one had the grit and grime of a solid one, it lacked the actual thrill of any real plot stakes. I didn't exactly have high expectations, but this still didn't quite hit the mark for me; in large part, this was due to the bizarrely stereotypical characters/language (not to be That Friend That's Too Woke, but damn, the disdain for fat women and weirdness about gay men was just too hard to miss) and the need for another round of editing and revision. It's amazing how a small you're/your can yank you right out of the story when it comes at the worst time.
2.5 stars rounded down, I think. I waffled between 2 and 3 for quite a while, and may have to think on it a while more yet.
One bright spot that I was pleasantly surprised by: a FMC written in a really refreshing, ballsy, and dirty-human-being way. Our protag/narrator Lily isn't precious. She works hard at an unglamorous job, she gets down and dirty while she works, and she still gets to be a woman at the end of the day. Kudos to McKinney for navigating that dynamic well.
Damn. I enjoy a good medical thriller, and while this one had the grit and grime of a solid one, it lacked the actual thrill of any real plot stakes. I didn't exactly have high expectations, but this still didn't quite hit the mark for me; in large part, this was due to the bizarrely stereotypical characters/language (not to be That Friend That's Too Woke, but damn, the disdain for fat women and weirdness about gay men was just too hard to miss) and the need for another round of editing and revision. It's amazing how a small you're/your can yank you right out of the story when it comes at the worst time.
2.5 stars rounded down, I think. I waffled between 2 and 3 for quite a while, and may have to think on it a while more yet.
One bright spot that I was pleasantly surprised by: a FMC written in a really refreshing, ballsy, and dirty-human-being way. Our protag/narrator Lily isn't precious. She works hard at an unglamorous job, she gets down and dirty while she works, and she still gets to be a woman at the end of the day. Kudos to McKinney for navigating that dynamic well.
June 20, 2022
Lily and her partner, Reginald "Chunk" Dempsey are police detectives, charged with solving a murder in the quarantined city of San Antonio. After a chicken-originating virus goes deadly, the city's been put into lockdown, and now someone has killed one of the scientists looking for a cure. I classified it as sci-fi, though arguably it's more of a near-future thriller, as the only "sci-fi" aspect in it is the quarantine and risk of pandemic. And of course, it's most interesting to read in the hindsight of an actual global pandemic. The virus here has a much higher fatality rate, and the quarantine is much more actual, but there's a kind of eerie resonance, an uncanny likeness to the world we actually had to live through.
I liked the rapport between Lily and Chunk, and on the whole, McKinney is clearly well-intentioned when it comes to issues of race and gender. Oddly, for a book written by someone with a police background, the cops don't really play much a role in actually solving the crime; it's more a book about atmosphere, and the crime is more or less solved for them. The end has the lead character making a choice that isn't necessarily framed as the right choice, but is definitely plausible for how people would behave within a pandemic, as we've seen. (And again, the uncanny aspect really gives the book a bit more heft above its weight class.) It reminded me of another near-apocalypse procedural I've read recently, the Last Policeman, though the comparison isn't really favorable for Quarantined; The Last Policeman is much better in exploring what law means in a society under collapse.
Anyway, this was a pretty gloomy read, given its own content and the current world. But at least it's a quick read too.
I liked the rapport between Lily and Chunk, and on the whole, McKinney is clearly well-intentioned when it comes to issues of race and gender. Oddly, for a book written by someone with a police background, the cops don't really play much a role in actually solving the crime; it's more a book about atmosphere, and the crime is more or less solved for them. The end has the lead character making a choice that isn't necessarily framed as the right choice, but is definitely plausible for how people would behave within a pandemic, as we've seen. (And again, the uncanny aspect really gives the book a bit more heft above its weight class.) It reminded me of another near-apocalypse procedural I've read recently, the Last Policeman, though the comparison isn't really favorable for Quarantined; The Last Policeman is much better in exploring what law means in a society under collapse.
Anyway, this was a pretty gloomy read, given its own content and the current world. But at least it's a quick read too.
October 31, 2024
San Antonio, Texas has had an outbreak of a particularly virulent & deadly form of flu & have been cut off from the outside world by a perimeter wall built around the city. Hundreds are dying every day & have to be buried in mass graves. Det Lily Harris works collating burial statistics & notices a body that doesn't seem to have been autopsied & a bullet wound suggests that this is a murder victim hidden amongst the other dead. As the police investigation intensifies, they uncover a conspiracy involving those in charge who are intent on hiding the truth from the public.
To say this was originally written over a decade before Covid, it sure got a lot of things right: masks, lockdowns, & staying so many metres apart. It could have been really good except for the fact that the MC, Lily, is a horrible person using fatphobic & homophobic language to describe people. In books like this where the MC is fighting for survival, the reader has to become invested in their story, but I really couldn't care less if Lily survived the pandemic or not.
To say this was originally written over a decade before Covid, it sure got a lot of things right: masks, lockdowns, & staying so many metres apart. It could have been really good except for the fact that the MC, Lily, is a horrible person using fatphobic & homophobic language to describe people. In books like this where the MC is fighting for survival, the reader has to become invested in their story, but I really couldn't care less if Lily survived the pandemic or not.
July 6, 2020
I’ve had this book on my shelf to read for a while, and when better to read it than while going through our own “quarantine” with COVID-19. I really like that it’s set in San Antonio, Texas because that’s where I live, so reading the local names was pretty cool. When I first started reading it I didn’t think I was going to like it, but the story is actually quite good. The characters Lily and Chuck grew on me, and I liked the pace of the story. Nice, quick read.
June 6, 2018
Good book. Sad that there was Zero zombies in this book. But still a very enjoyable read. I was under the impression that it was a continuation of the "Dead World" series, but it is actually a stand alone novel about a family being quarantined in Texas. Though the ending kind of led you to believe that a zombie outbreak was imminent.
April 26, 2022
While I'm a big fan of McKinney's Dead City series, this one was a bit of a miss for me. Interesting enough concept and setting, but just a bit too thin of a who-dunnit that I wasn't really expecting to come from this one. Still decent but just okay.
May 12, 2017
This was better than "Dead City" his first book I read. I good cautionary tale about what can happen to good people.
October 8, 2017
Very well written. I liked the mystery plot in the setting of the decimated/quarantined city. It was my first time reading this author and I'm very interested in checking out more of his work!
October 20, 2018
Not bad. Interesting premise, with a whole city under quarantine.
Strong characters, finished a bit quickly
Strong characters, finished a bit quickly
August 13, 2019
I liked the characters but the plot didn't really go anywhere. There were some events that made me anticipate a larger scale conflict but that never materialised. Left me disappointed.
December 17, 2019
nice, quick little read
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