SHOT

Siler (Iced, 2001, etc.) introduces another tough but tender protagonist, this one determined to uncover the truth behind her spouse’s death.

Lucy Greene’s hangover stems from booze, pills, grief, and the nagging belief that her husband Carl wasn’t killed in an auto accident, as the police report concluded. Lucy remembers how skillfully Carl navigated ice-covered roads at home in Colorado. So how, she wonders, could he crash his car on a rainy night just outside Seattle? Former friend and investigative television reporter Kevin Burns feeds her suspicions. Just before Carl died, he’d phoned Kevin, eager to hand him a major story that had to be discussed in person. Carl’s work at Bioflux Corporation now seems the place to dig for answers. But first someone rifles Carl’s home office late at night, scattering the files; then, after he’s retrieved Carl’s Bioflux files, researcher Craig Weldon turns up shot in the head. Ostensibly, Biolflux did immune-system research, but clues suggest that the firm pursued darker matters: Lucy’s brother Chick suffers from Gulf War Syndrome, and Lucy and Carl’s infant son died of severe birth defects. Kevin and Lucy start tracking down the firm’s board members for answers, a pursuit ultimately leading to Seattle. Joining them is a prison inmate on probation—her warden is also desperate to get Carl’s data. On the track of the unlikely but canny trio is a hired gunman with orders to take them out. Untying the knots in the case, Lucy and Kevin, once lovers, try doing the same with their lives. They’re luckier with the case. The final scene fades on the two of them, alone and apart on a dark Christmas Eve.

Aside from a credibility-challenging hostage scene at the end, Siler hits her marks with quick, fast takes packed with telling clues and sharp details.