I have to admit that at first I was startled—and later dismayed—by the concept of a police officer with multiple sclerosis working in the field instead of behind a desk. It turns out that Chicago Detective Gina Simonetti’s boss would feel the same, which is why she’s hiding her medical condition from others on the force.
The sole support of her brother’s child, Isabel, she can’t afford to lose her job. Yet her symptoms, which include sometimes not being able to feel her feet or her hands, are putting her life and the lives of others in danger.
While I liked the toughness of Simonetti, I found it hard to empathize with her. After losing a fight with a suspect because of her condition and, in the process, losing her gun, she has to lie to protect her secret, making her no more moral than the suspects she chases. The author does succeed in humanizing the hard-driving cop, however, by including passages that show her warm interactions with Isabel, in scenes that add a little lightness to a rather dark story.
In her search for the escapee, Simonetti comes into contact with his mother, an Alzheimer’s patient, a meeting that leads her to crimes even larger than those she is originally pursuing. Unfortunately, the detective’s relentless need to find answers puts Isabel in danger.
What I found intriguing, and also depressing, was how everyone crosses the line in this story, from the police officers who are supposed to be upholding the law to the families that are supposed to be caring for each other, to the health-care workers who should be protecting their patients. Almost everyone in this story is living a lie, and that’s an ugly truth.