Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, Book 1)

Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, Book 1)
Olivia Waite, 2025

Premise: Investigating a potential murder on a spaceship is tricky enough. Now try doing it in someone else's body.

A sci-fi murder mystery by one of my favorite romance authors? Sign me up!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story, but I'm hesitant about the idea of it being a series. The sci-fi technology and setting which were integral to this particular puzzle seem unlikely to hold up to scrutiny through more stories. 

Maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am. I would love a great series of cozy-ish detective in space stories. But I have so many questions about the setting.

Dorothy is a detective on a spaceship that has sidestepped the problem of the generation ship (the idea that if humans were to travel to another livable planet, it would take so long that it would be the great-(some number of great)-grandchildren of the original crew who would actually arrive). On this spaceship, once your body dies, you simply download your mind into a new one from your backup. (You back up your mind frequently.)

The book is very interested in what this sci-fi idea means for romance, business relationships, wealth, and crime. It is not interested in what it means for children, parents, spirituality, sense of self, or motivation, among other things. Is no one having children? I'm guessing no? (I mean, all the characters we meet in any substantial sense are homosexual, but they also have some kind of crazy cloning tech, so don't tell me that can't be repurposed.)

Also there's a throwaway line about this process stopping once they reach their new home. Hands up if you know more than one person who would willingly give up effective immortality. 

However, setting aside those issues, the novella is a lot of fun. The characters are nicely colorful as fits this type of mystery. Dorothy is pragmatic and clever as a detective. Even though personally she's struggling with loss and then suddenly dropped into a stranger's much younger body, her narration is funny and brisk enough that I sailed through the book easily in one short sitting. 

Only time will tell if this series ends up a solidly good time or too superficial to stand any deep thought.

4 Stars - A Very Good Book