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Lucy Greene had a hardscrabble life up until the time that she married the local doctor's son, Carl. They live in a beautiful home, and Lucy 's time is mostly spent in leisurely pursuits such as painting, quite in contrast to her earlier years when she and her brother Chick earned money by picking beets. Carl has an excellent job in the biotech industry, and they appear to be doing quite well. But the façade falls apart when Carl is killed in a car accident. While Lucy is mourning his death, several events occur which cause her to question the manner of her husband's death. First of all, someone breaks into Carl's home office one evening and appears to be looking for some files. Later on, his former employers come to the home and remove all the material that was in the office. Secondly, Lucy is contacted by a friend from the past by the name of Kevin Burns. Burns was most recently a news reporter who lost his job. Right before Carl 's death, Carl had gotten in touch with him and asked that they meet, promising Kevin a very important story. The story is important and has to do with the aftereffects of biological testing. Originally, the chemicals were used in an experiment conducted on selected individual in the military, including Lucy's brother Chick. Unknown to the people who set up the tests, there are long range health impacts. There are several instances of unexplainable health problems that are ultimately related to the experiments, including birth defects which killed Carl and Lucy's infant son after only 2 hours and major problems at a local plant. Part of Carl's research on the job had to do with the causes of these defects. Kevin and Lucy team up with the woman who tried to rob Lucy, an ex-con by the name of Darcy who has her own reasons for wanting to find out the truth. The three of them embark on a search for the truth and uncover a conspiracy to cover up the testing of biological weapons. There's an inept killer on their trail. Through great good fortune, they are able to talk to the one person who can reveal the lurid details about the history of the incident and get the truth out in the open. The book felt formulaic, and there were too many implausible elements that made it difficult for me to become engrossed in the narrative. Darcy's motivation for participating in the activities seemed weak to me (to protect her druggie sister who was in prison). The killer on their trail can't shoot straight. And the path to the very informative informant was just a little too convenient. Siler's first two books, Easy Money and Iced, featured edgy female protagonists, lyrical writing and a noir sensibility, none of which were in evidence in this book. I give Siler credit for trying to write a different kind of book with Shot, but I don't feel that she succeeded in the endeavor. Shot was very much a standard suspense thriller kind of book, and it never elevated itself to anything beyond the ordinary.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, March 2003
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