Summary: A scifi police procedural that is a set up for a longer series.
In addition to being a stay at home Dad to two, I have a part time gig that involves lots of data analysis. I am in one of the seasons where that data has to be transferred from one format to another, so I am doing a lot of data entry. This is fairly mindless work and one of the things I have alway liked about my job because I can listen to audiobooks in the background while I do it.
A Facebook friend recommended a book series that starts with The Disappeared last week that seemed like a perfect data entry book and I picked it up and listened to it immediately since it was on sale.
The setting is the moon. The oldest and largest of the moon colonies is Armstrong Base. Armstrong Base has the biggest spaceport and so the largest traffic. This future has a number of different alien groups that trade with humans. One of the side problems with alien economic trade is the different cultural and legal systems. Intergalactic trade policy has to include systems for prosecution of local offenses.
Several of the alien groups have bounty hunters that come to search out humans that are in violation of various ‘crimes’. This gives rise to disappearance services that help hide humans that have been convicted or are in danger of being convicted for crimes that will have harsh sentences, often for just being ignorant of cultural offenses.
Two detectives on the moon have a confluence of several different alien interactions that fall on them. Several dead humans that appear to have been killed in an honor killing by one alien race, another set of aliens that is kidnapping children as part of their legal system. A third alien group that is pursuing a human on a warrant. All of which raises legal, ethical, communication and vocational challenges.
The Disappeared is a mix of genres. It is a police procedural that is not really a mystery. Most of the crimes/events are laid out fairly early. The mystery is the connection. The scifi setting allows for a different spin on the police procedural. And in the end this is a set up for a long series that appears to be more of a thriller.
The Disappeared is nice change of pace for me. I would not have picked it up if it had not been recommended and I would not have picked it up if it had not been on sale. But I enjoyed the book and I will pick up more of them as I see them on sale and have time.
The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Retrieval Artist #1) Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook (Kindle Edition is $2.99 and the Audiobook is a $1.99 with purchase of Kindle Edition at time of posting.)
