In a coma

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In Koma (in the English original: Still Life ) is a thriller by the Canadian writer Joy Fielding . The original edition was published by Atria Books in 2009 and - like the 16 thrillers previously published by Joy Fielding - was included in the New York Times ' best list . In the same year a German translation by Kristian Lutze followed , which was published by Goldmann Verlag . On September 1, 2009, the work was published as an audio book by Random House Audio . The paperback edition was published in March 2011 and rose to number four in the Spiegel- paperback bestseller list.

action

Casey Marshall lives in Philadelphia , is happily married to her husband Warren and is a successful interior decorator. One day she meets up with her two good friends Janine and Gail, who also come from a wealthy background, for lunch in an exclusive restaurant. After the three women say goodbye after the meal, Casey is on the way to her car, which she has parked in a nearby parking garage, when she is hit by a car at high speed. The driver of the car commits a hit and run and leaves Casey seriously injured back.

At a local hospital, Casey is found to have suffered severely fractured bones and is in a critical, comatose condition. The doctors manage to treat her multiple trauma , but Casey is still in a coma. When she regains consciousness, she only slowly becomes aware of her situation and soberly observes: "She was a thirty-two year old woman, trapped in a possibly irreparable coma in which she could hear, but see nothing, think but not communicate, exist, but could not act. ” This makes her a passive listener, who notices how her friends are taking care of her and reading the novel Middlemarch to her , but cannot express it herself, cannot even tell the outside world that she does perceive it . Casey learns that the responsible Detective Spinetti assumes an accident in his investigation, but cannot rule out an attempted murder . Although he investigates both variants, he finds neither suitable motives nor a suspect, so that he is on the spot with his investigation. Meanwhile, Casey tries to resolve the matter for herself by considering who might have motivated her death. For a short time, she suspects her friends, as well as her sister Drew, who is in constant financial need, while Casey was appointed as the administrator of the family assets by her parents who died in a plane crash. However, none of her theories can completely convince her.

Meanwhile, the nurse Patsy worries not only about her patient Casey, but also increasingly about her husband Warren. Not only does Casey witness Patsy's crude advances, but eventually overhears her husband's training partner, Nick, entering the hospital room and demanding money for the failed attempt to murder Casey, for which Warren had hired him.

Casey's condition improved slightly over time. She opens her eyes, which is why it is suspected that she is in a vegetative state , but cannot see anything around her. In fact, she still cannot see, which is why she compares her situation in the perpetual darkness with the feature film Without a Trace , in which Sandra Bullock is buried alive. Nobody suspects that their condition is less like a vegetative state and more like locked-in syndrome . In order to further regenerate her muscles, the physiotherapist Jeremy is assigned to perform appropriate exercises with her.

Warren Marshall decides to bring Casey's demise to an end in his own home. He therefore requests that his wife be transferred to the bedroom at home. At the same time he offers Patsy a job to personally look after his wife, who the nurse gratefully accepts. He also asks Jeremy to continue physiotherapy in his own property. Casey fears that Warren has requested the transfer so that he can kill her at home, but forces himself to continue to make the best of her situation and hope that she will regenerate in time to take advantage of the surprise effect against her husband. She says to herself, “If you asked yourself ," Why me? "In bad times, you should ask yourself the same question when things went well.” Her sister Drew senses that Casey is burdened and her situation is changing, which causes her Warren is suspicious of Warren and therefore the improvements she discovered in Casey's constitution are withheld from him.

Drew discovers that Casey can squeeze her hand in a targeted manner to answer questions like she saw in the movie Butterfly and Diving Bell . However, the two lack the time for Casey to warn them that her husband wants to have them killed. In fact, she receives another visit from Nick, who, in her presence, receives the order to suffocate her with the pillow next Sunday, while Warren will drive the family to Gettysburg . After a kiss between Patsy and Warren, he had released the nurse from all other duties and after a disagreement with Jeremy, he had also broken up with Casey's physical therapist. So Nick won't meet anyone in the house on Sunday. Casey, who has since regained her eyesight, watches with horror as the minutes on the clock radio on her bedside table slip away without her being able to move out of bed to reach the phone.

Patsy, on the other hand, who comes from less affluent backgrounds, has not given her front door key and appears at the property on Sunday to steal selected items of clothing from Casey's closet. When Nick enters the house, Patsy hides in the closet, but is discovered there by Nick just as he is about to murder Casey and a scared scream escapes Patsy. Nick then grabs the nurse and strangles her with the silk scarf she's wearing. Since Nick now has to make a corpse and its car, which is parked in the driveway, disappear, he drags Patsy away without caring about Casey.

Warren returns home from the outing and is amazed to find Casey alive. That evening, Drew notifies the discharged psychotherapist Jeremy to help her get Casey out of the house. At night Jeremy appears, who lifts Casey out of bed, but is put in the hallway by Warren with his gun drawn. Warren shoots Jeremy, who then drops Casey. Drew rushes on Warren, causing him to drop the gun. It remains lying a meter away from Casey. With the last of his strength, Casey stretches, picks up the gun, and fires a shot at her husband.

Jeremy's recovery goes smoothly, and Casey gets well again. Warren is sentenced to life imprisonment.

criticism

The Stern editorial team wrote: “No doubt about it. The woman is a professional. When it says Fielding , thriller plots that are ready for a film run off the tape. ” The Bunte judges: “ Joy Fielding is the master of the abysmal! ” Alex Dengler from VOX believes the novel is “ extremely oppressive, extremely exciting, extremely briskly told " . The German Press Agency sums it up: “In her new book“ Im Koma ”Fielding proves to be a master of oppressive drama and a profound connoisseur of the human psyche.” According to Bild am Sonntag , Joy Fielding's work is “the thriller for insomniacs: A woman is in a coma, but realizes everything - including that you want to murder her. The reader also falls into a coma, into a reading coma, right up to the last sentence. "

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Spiegel : Method Acting in writing thrillers , book report, David Wengenroth, February 21, 2011
  2. ^ Joy Fielding, "Im Koma", Goldmann Verlag, 1st edition, paperback edition, 2011, p. 37
  3. ^ Joy Fielding, "Im Koma", Goldmann Verlag, 1st edition, paperback edition, 2011, pp. 21f.
  4. ↑ Joy Fielding, "Im Koma", Goldmann Verlag, 1st edition, paperback edition, 2011, p. 370
  5. ↑ Joy Fielding, "Im Koma", Goldmann Verlag, 1st edition, paperback edition, 2011, p. 315
  6. ↑ VOX : VOX book tip: Joy Fielding - In a coma , Alex Dengler

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