"Chaos and shit follow me everywhere I go. I show up at a party, someone dies and someone else gets abducted by a passing alien ship? That doesn't happen everywhere." -Mallory
This is definitely "Jessica Fletcher" (or any other murder mystery magnet) "goes to space," and then it gets weird.
Mallory Viridian is some kind of murder mystery magnet. She tends to be around when someone gets murdered, and she's able to identify the connections and the weird ways things happen. Unfortunately, this has gone terribly for with regards to trying to have a romantic relationship (she can't, someone dies), or frankly, doing much of anything. Most cops don't believe her, except one guy who isn't in the book much but has sworn to keep her out of being able to work in any criminal field. The only way Mallory can make a living is to write books based on her experiences.
Then First Contact happens, and various species make themselves known to the planet, and when Mallory ends up around yet another murder at a military base, she finds out there's an option to go move to a sentient space station, where very few humans are. Maybe if she's not around other humans, this won't keep happening. Sure, she has to become a research subject to a buggy hivemind species to make a living and eating in alien restaurants and figuring out what she can eat is an adventure, but at least she can make a few interspecies friends without issue.
However, after moving to Station Eternity, one day Eternity decides she's willing to let a shuttle full of humans visit, and naturally Mallory is OH SHIT PEOPLE ARE GONNA DIE AND NOBODY LISTENS TO ME OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT. Also in a similar "oh shit oh shit oh shit" situation is her college friend Van, a military guy who's been involved in top secret shit and was also at the last murder Mallory was at. Upon ducking his own murder, he literally got picked up by some friendly/wasted aliens, and has also been hiding out on the station/human military for going AWOL.
Why yes, it does seem like a coincidence that Mallory and Xan run into each other periodically, but that isn't the only one. Because once the station's symbiont being is killed and there's a horrible shuttle accident that takes out most of the passengers, Mallory finds out the survivors (and at least one deceased) have connections to her and/or Xan. Coincidence? Probably not.
There's also a semi-confusing subplot about the Gneiss, a large rocky species that can transform themselves into shuttles or something else. Mallory and Xan have made friends with Stephanie*, Ferdinand, and Tina, a trio of Gneiss friends. Apparently Tina--the nice but dumb one--is some kind of Gneiss royalty, and Stephanie's royalty-obsessed grandfather the shuttle is somehow convinced that Stephanie might do something or other to Tina, which doesn't make sense, nor do the other two seem inclined to want to rule a planet. This turns into a whole thing involving transformation and most of the hibernating Gneiss in the station getting riled up... This was interesting, but frankly I'm not entirely sure if I got everything that was going on with this or why this was going on now.
* I note there's a translator thing people get installed in themselves that translates names into what you can understand.
For those of you wondering if there's a romance, I'm gonna say "not really." Mallory is vaguely interested in Xan, but frankly, they're too busy and Xan seems averse to impulsive ladies. Well, maybe in the next book (one gets the feeling if there's a subtitle called "The Midsolar Murders," it may be a series).
I will say that the plot gets fairly convoluted--especially with certain alien things going on--but things do eventually make sense and get explained, particularly Mallory's "is she cursed or what" sort of affliction, which I'll discuss below the spoiler cut.
Beyond that, the various alien species in this are certainly inventive. I enjoyed getting to know the various suspects/murder victims in this, as some of them got particularly interesting or inventive in how they were handled. (Has someone told Seanan McGuire to read this book? There's a Manic Pixie Chaos-y Murder Girl in this she'll love.) The Brown family are also intriguing when you get to know them. There's also the concept that all the other species get into symbiotic relationships with other beings, and they think it's pretty weird that humans don't do that--well, the only things similar on their planet are parasites or cancer--and that whole concept gets some cool development.
Overall the book is an entertaining chaotic-y mess, but does sort itself out into a satisfying resolution, thankfully. I give it four stars. I've been in January funk and while some books I'm literally taking months to read right now (why?!), I whipped through this in probably 24 hours, barring other things to do in life like theater.
Spoiler space
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For those of you wondering what exactly it is, it turns out that the "bee" stings Mallory got as a child--specifically on the day her mom got murdered--are really from the Sundry, the aforementioned buggish hive mind species, scouting Earth early. This apparently increased her intelligence/ability to solve murders, but also the Sundry note that she's attracted to murders rather than the other way around. "Murder sniffing dog," pretty much.
I admit I'm disappointed that Sam, the guy who dies before finding Mallory, was a fan of her books and seems to have almost pinpointed what was going on (minus the alien connection). THAT would have been interesting had that actually happened instead of Mallory finding out after his death and there being one posthumoous chapter from his POV.
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