Kirkus Reviews QR Code
MURDER UNDER ANOTHER SUN by Colin Alexander

MURDER UNDER ANOTHER SUN

A Leif the Lucky Novel

by Colin Alexander

Pub Date: Aug. 3rd, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73619-844-5
Publisher: Alton Kremer

An American war veteran in the forefront of future space exploration awkwardly turns into a crime investigator when a planetary colony he is replenishing is revealed as a hotbed of intrigue and murder.

In this SF sequel, Alexander continues the chronicles of future tough-guy hero (of Norwegian American descent) Leif Grettison, begun in Starmans Saga (2019). For newcomers, this caper can largely be savored as a stand-alone. Leif is a battle-scarred veteran of a world conflict whose main intent now is to stay away from a fractious, corrupt Earth that holds no place for a fair-minded, honorable ex-soldier. Yet he repeatedly plays a pivotal role in interstellar hijinks. His formidable one-time enemy/now lover, pilot Yang Yong, wants Leif to accompany her on a routine trip to a newly seeded space colony on a distant hothouse planet ironically called Heaven. They are bringing supplies and fresh pioneers to continue building the beachhead. But arriving on Heaven, Leif finds a polarized, rebellious rabble on the scorching planet (“This heat was like being wrapped in wool blankets and then thrown into a sauna”). It seems the first colonists are actually convicts—runaways, dopers, and shifty Earth refugees. Judging that settling the harsh biome will involve too much uncomfortable work, they are voting to ditch the mission and return home via the supply ship despite the agreement that this was a one-way trip. Leif and company hardly have time to process this when the malcontents’ leader, a much-disliked blackmailer and con man called (pseudonymously) Jerry Whitehead, dies under nonviolent but very suspicious circumstances. Leif finds himself conducting a maladroit Whitehead murder investigation in the middle of a regime change, secrets, lies, politics, and PTSD triggers from all the stuff he thought he left behind. The tale’s whodunit aspect is serviceable, if not spectacular, and relies on a supporting character’s swift (but acceptable) deus ex machina role change. But it’s the solid storytelling, characterization, and fast-paced action that keep this game afoot. Readers who enjoy hard-science SF should be pleased with the biology and worldbuilding elements. And they will perhaps take note that while loads of Alexander’s SF contemporaries have generated many hand-wringing dystopia-o-ramas of global warming, Heaven's climate change has arisen naturally, not due to human industry.    

An engaging sequel that crossbreeds established SF characters with a credible extraterrestrial murder mystery.