LOCKED IN

About the Book

Blink twice for help...

Something strange has gripped the residents of Douglas County, Oregon. One by one several people and even whole families have literally fallen down in what looks like a coma. It's horrifying for those untouched by the disease to see their loved ones fall beside them mid-word without any warning and without any discernible reason,. It's much more terrifying for the victims, however, than anyone realizes because the victims aren't in a coma. They are fully conscious, aware of their surroundings, and able to do only two things on their own—breathe and blink. They have Locked In Syndrome, a kind of living death in which they can see, hear, taste and feel, but cannot even twitch their nose.

Senior Public Health Nurse Nancy Brandauer has the task of finding out what happened to these people and what will bring them out of it before their condition becomes irreversible. Her quest is motivated by something much deeper than her commitment to her profession, great though that is. Her motivation springs from the very core of her soul because her only daughter is one of the victims.

Into the midst of this emotional whirl, the Centers for Disease Control drops someone to "help."  Her first love, Zachary Keller, a man from whom the parting was not sweet, but bitter, unresolved, and for which Nancy feels a certain guilt. Happily married now for many years, she draws strength from her husband Ed, even as he draws strength from her. Their bond is as unassailable as any couple's can be, but it faces a rapid succession of challenges that will test its temper as nothing has before.

"Locked In" twists and turns, going where you least expect it. Just when you think you've rounded the last turn and worked everything out, it tosses you another surprise—right up to the very last page.

About the Author

The author's multifarious experiences include nineteen years in a Southern California county jail. His career there as a correctional nurse provided him with many stories (some of which are even true and/or publishable) populated by a wide variety of fascinating and arresting characters. He retired, mostly to save his sanity, but also to tell some of those stories. "I think of it as cathartic therapy," he says. He now lives in a forest in Oregon, healing well, now that he has put the final touches a story from his old haunt, the county jail, and writes, teaches, travels, and runs his own software publishing firm. "Ain't retirement great? It's so relaxing."