A twisty SF mystery that weaves together intriguing futuristic concepts with a classic crime-noir feel.
Curbo’s SF thriller finds a young man waking from a coma only to be thrown into the middle of a missing-persons mystery.
In an unspecified future San Francisco, Simon Silibus, a “caretaker of friends,” has christened a comatose associate with a new name: Ryger Deacon. A fugitive from the law, Simon must keep his friend safe as he undergoes “the change”—a method of life extension that returns a person’s DNA to a younger state. Waking up with coma-induced amnesia, Ryger struggles to remember his past even as he’s informed that he is a private investigator and given a new task by Maggie O’Die, the wealthy, elderly owner of All-Bio, the company responsible for life extension technology. Ryger is directed to find Maggie’s missing husband, Sam, and her granddaughter, Cara, who is next in line to inherit Maggie’s fortune. As Ryger attempts to piece together his past, he must navigate company politics and the constant threat of “Trackers,” a cryptic and deadly group that targets anyone pursuing unregulated life extension. When Maggie herself goes missing, and a mysterious girl shows up who may or may not be the real Cara, Ryger must use all the futuristic tools at his disposal—including a memory-stimulating pearl—to crack the case. In this ambitiously intricate novel, the author manages to mostly hang onto the various plot threads. At times, particularly when discussing the Trackers, “mystery” strays into “vagueness,” but the open-endedness of the novel’s conclusion indicates this may be intentional. Clean writing and brisk action keep things moving forward as Curbo shares thoughtful insights into the nature of humanity in the face of its future and its past: “We exist in a world of connections to other people. As we grow old, our connections stretch and thin. We look for familiar faces in every new place we go. We see these new people in the light of people we once knew.”
A twisty SF mystery that weaves together intriguing futuristic concepts with a classic crime-noir feel.Pub Date: June 11, 2023
ISBN: 979-8395822581
Page Count: 273
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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