Seven years prior to the beginning of this riveting sci-fi/thriller from Thomas Mullen, the entire population of the earth succumbed to an unknown disease resulting in blindness for nearly every living person. The ramifications of “The Blinding” are at the heart of BLIND SPOTS.

We are immediately introduced to homicide detective Mark Owens and his partners. Despite not having any sight, they still need to maintain the peace in an unpredictable new world landscape.

"BLIND SPOTS provides much to think about and discuss from start to finish. Mullen pulls no punches here..."

Technology has been created in the form of vidders. Worn on the head and directly connecting to the brain, these small metal discs can replicate a state of “vision” by downloading data of what a person is looking at directly into the cerebral cortex. But what would happen if someone were able to hack into this program and alter what you are seeing? It certainly would make law enforcement that much more of a challenge.

The Blinding began in Asia and quickly swept across the globe. The resulting blindness was fast-acting, and no remedy has been found. Mullen doesn’t really provide an exact cause for the disease that brought about this horror, which makes any future prevention nearly impossible.

Owens has been on the force since before The Blinding and is dealing with the new technology that still allows him to do his job. A scientist has been murdered, but the primary “eyewitness” to the attack that led to the homicide claims that the killer was blocked out of her view --- a blind spot, if you will. As the investigation continues to intensify, Owens and his colleagues realize that someone has been tampering with the vidders, allowing for the vision to be skewed or even implanted with a false viewpoint. Who could have such capability, and why are they trying to interfere with this case?

BLIND SPOTS provides much to think about and discuss from start to finish. Mullen pulls no punches here, and I appreciated a blurb I came across that compared this book to an episode of “Black Mirror,” an anthology series that depicts the impact of modern and future technology upon our world in interesting ways. Setting up a standard crime noir sort of murder mystery amidst such a unique worldview is a brilliant idea, and BLIND SPOTS does an admirable job of balancing the two fields of thought.