Excerpt here.
This is "The Thin Man IN SPACE," and that's all to the good.
Tesla Crane is an inventor/heiress/famous rich lady who was in a horrible accident several years ago that left her disabled, with a pain device in her back, and THE WORLD'S MOST ADORABLE SERVICE DOG EVER, a tiny white Westie named Gimlet that everyone loves. She's just gotten married to recently-retired private detective Shal Steward, and they're trying to have an anonymous space honeymoon to Mars, when guess what, here's a dead body, Shal finds it, and is immediately targeted as the murderer even though he literally didn't even know the woman. (In a space future where everyone is "Mx. Whatever" and pronouns are everywhere, I still note the brown guy is fingered for the crime. I started watching the new season of Schmigadoon! this week and the same thing happens to poor Dr. Josh when he finds a dead lady and is checking the body. Weird coincidence.)
Anyway, as Shal is literally getting beat up by the cruiser police, Tesla needs to lose her disguise (even if it means she's got to sign autographs), keep trying to get her Internet connections back and her lawyer on the space phone, fight against her bodily issues, and solve the crimes (more bodies pile up, and one appears to be missing) even if the space police have some issues with that. We get an interesting cast of characters, including a kid who recognizes Tesla from a competition and has a shady parent, the ship magician, some other famous/rich people, and cruiser staff ranging from nice to naughty. She also deploys her adorable dog in many helpful ways to both investigate and disarm people (and in one case, the one person who doesn't like her...watch it!), which is utterly charming.
I would like to note that the lawyer on earth, Fantine, is a frantic crocheter while under stress AND THAT'S AMAZING AND I LOVE IT SO. She's delightfully scary and foul-mouthed and exactly who you'd want to defend you against wrongful murder charges. I admit it's kind of hard to comprehend exactly how their phone-calls-at-a-several-minutes-lag conversations must be going IRL, but I'm not sure how you'd handle that in a narrative either.
Overall, I enjoyed this very much and it was a fun read. Should these two solve more mysteries, this would not surprise me. Four stars.
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