Of All The Gin Joints In The Universe

One detective. Two suspects. A conspiracy big enough to kill them all.


In the far reaches of the galaxy in the 25th Century, Space Station 1964-known to the locals as "Norma"-is the last place a man can disappear without falling off the map entirely. That's exactly why ex-Galactic Justice Inspector Samuel Archer Spade set up shop here. Cigarette in hand, fedora on head, he keeps to himself... until a woman in red walks into The Galaxy's Edge and drops a problem in his lap.

She says she's Sandra Dobbs, an antiquities dealer hounded by a persistent ex-associate. Spade's high-tech lie detectors say otherwise-her real name is Natasha Carter, and she's wanted for questioning about a missing statue that might just contain the legendary Hope Diamond.

Two days later, the man she's running from walks in, swearing she stole it from him. Both tell convincing stories. Both are hiding something. And somewhere between their conflicting truths might lay a jewel worth a fortune... and more than one reason to get killed for.

In a galaxy where law is a matter of politics and survival depends on which lies you believe, Sam Spade is about to discover that chasing the truth might be the most dangerous case of his career.

For he is about to uncover a dirty little secret. Innocent people are being framed for crimes they didn't commit by Galactic Justice itself, using the device that is supposed to uncover only the truth to do it. Worse still, the HALO is being used to program people into killers.

That's a secret GalJus is willing to kill for and both Sam, and his client, are right at the top of their list.

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WHAT THE REVIEWERS ARE SAYING:

The action is intense. But it also has a lot of humour.

It was very hard to put the book down. It is a mystery, wrapped in a conspiracy, with a love story at the heart. In some ways this story reminds me of The Carter Files by Lori Janeski. It also reminds me or a lot of old shows I watched with my father including; Mike Hammer, Dirty Harry, and Spencer for Hire to name but a few. And Paolinelli makes homage to several detectives and the whole noir genre through out the work.

This is an excellent novel from Paolinelli's pen. It took me by surprise. A great addition to his complete works. I can easily recommend this story for what an excellent piece of Science fiction mashed up with mystery Noir!

- Steven R. McEvoy - Book Reviews And More

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Fedoras. Trenchcoats. Space cigarettes. Space dames. A hard-boiled detective. Fistfights. Spaceships. Honestly, you could've just said "space dames" and I would've coughed up my money.

Considering the popularity of pulp detective noir wizards (or one particular wizard, Mr. Dresden), the genre of pulp detective noir in space is tragically underserved. Fundamentally, a hard-boiled detective in space is awesome in of itself. But when multi-genre master Richard Paolinelli takes on the tropes, we end up with far more than the sum of the parts: a pulp noir detective in all his hardboiled glory saving the galaxy in the style of the best space opera.