In the Tick of Time

Matt is an investigator for the Department of Public Health and Environment. After being attacked by a prisoner he was interviewing about their illness, he sleeps during the day and has insomnia at night. While entering data at work, he notices an interesting pattern of vector borne illnesses, so he refuses to sign off on a report until he can do more investigating. His boss thinks he is being stubborn, but Matt senses something is not right. Too many unrelated people are getting ill with tick-borne illnesses and there is even one death in the mix. He is determined to find the common denominator to solve this mystery.

An entertaining mystery, "In the Tick of Time" is done in the style where the audience knows who the criminal is from the beginning. The piece is beautifully orchestrated as the culprit goes from one victim to another. A psychopath is on the loose and Matt is on his trail in spite of his own medical condition. The secondary characters are flat, but add to the story as victims of the assailant. There is some rehashing of Matt’s accident throughout the story that becomes monotonous. Matt’s character has lots of depth in spite of his lack of understanding about his world. He has a lot of angst about his health holding him back in his job, knowing he is the only specialist available, but he has been put on indeterminate leave. This is only one of several mysteries penned by P.D. Workman and all promise to be of equally good quality.

Belinda Wilson