Book Review: Consequences

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Consequences     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction   Mystery   Thriller
Series: The Retrieval Artists # 3
Roc, April 2004, $6.50, 384 pp.

In the far distant future, mankind has spread throughout the stars colonizing worlds and making treaties with alien species to trade goods. Part of each treaty includes a clause that when humans deal with aliens, they must obey alien laws and if they don’t they will be punished according tothe penal code of those they have beleaguered. Many humans who break alien laws become the Disappeared, changing their identity and going to planets to escape alien justice.

Caleb and Mimi Lahiri go to Retrieval Artist Miles Flint to hire him to find their daughter Carolyn who has been pardoned by the new ruling government of Etae who were once considered rebels. It isn’t long before he locates Carolyn and reunites her with her parents but soon afterward the police on Armstrong, the domed city on the moon, find all three Lahiris murdered. Mike’s former partner officer Noelle DeRicci wants his help but he has to work alone due to the nature of his job. He learns that he is being set up for the Lahiris murders and must find a way of clearing his name by solving the case without getting himself killed.

Part science fiction, part mystery and pure enjoyment are the words to describe Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s latest Retrieval Artist novel. What makes CONSEQUENCES stand out is that the Etae are humans although they are not part of the Earth Alliance because they are considered uncivilized warmongers who practice genocide on their own people. Though not enough attention is paid to the alien races except for a few very serio-comic scenes, this is a strong murder mystery in outer space story line

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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