BLIND SPOTS

In the high-tech future, murder is murky.

Seven years after a cataclysmic global event known as The Blinding, people are able to see only with the aid of vidders, metal discs implanted in their temples. Vidders have helped restore societal order, but organized crime is still a huge challenge for law enforcement. Partners Mark Owens and Safiya Khouri, along with the abrasive man-mountain Peterson, a third cop, find themselves in the run-down River District, where a tense situation and a malfunctioning vidder lead to a questionable shooting by Owens. He’s dressed down by crusty Capt. Carlyle, who runs the Major Crimes unit. On the homefront, Owens’ lover, Amira Quigley, who’s also a fellow cop, wants to move in with him. Stress and the specter of his ex Jeanie, a painter whose artwork still adorns the walls of Owens’ apartment, make him waffle. All the while, a Truth Commission instituted by the new president is laying out complex procedures and investigating recent activities of government employees, including Owens. The opening chapters are heavy with exposition, but Mullen’s crisp character delineation pays off as the plot unfolds. He rights the narrative ship with a complex puzzle: the murder of Dr. Jensen, a researcher at Bio-Lux Technologies, by a blurry figure much like one Owens encountered on the waterfront. More murders follow. Grounded in the set pieces of police procedurals, this is both a whodunit and a cautionary tale about technology and government authoritarianism run amok.

A lively, offbeat mystery with a thought-provoking premise.