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The Spare Man on October 11, 2022 Buy on Bookshop
Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high-society in this stylish SF mystery, The Spare Man.
Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.
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Tesla Crane is a glittering, outer space version of extreme wealth and privilege, tempered by her physical disability and PTSD. The wealth seems like a fair balance to the former issues (if only everyone with a disability had the chance for that sort of repayment for their struggles), and I will forgive the privilege because at least she manages to be aware that it can be used as a bludgeon.
Although, Tesla isn’t above using it as such when the occasion calls for it. Which it does when security on the newlyweds’ stellar cruise liner decides to arrest the first brown man they see in proximity to the crime. Armed with an adorable tiny service dog, several bottles of expensive booze, an even more expensive lawyer, and her dangerously sharp engineering skills, Tesla is determined to force the security team to actually do their job and find the real killer.
With a highly appropriate title and a thoroughly enjoyable mystery, Kowal once again delivers a high-class couple that you can’t help but fall in love with. No condescending “surprise” twists here. You can certainly pinpoint whodunit before the novel is through, but — and I say this with certain pointed looks toward the TV and film industry — that doesn’t make the journey any less thrilling.
Personally, I’m holding onto hope for a sequel.
