The Spare Man

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Mary Robinette Kowal, Mary Robinette Kowal: The Spare Man (Hardcover, 2022, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

Hardcover, 368 pages

English language

Published Oct. 11, 2022 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:
978-1-250-82915-3
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4 stars (2 reviews)

Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high-society in this stylish SF mystery, The Spare Man.

Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She's traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling--and keep the real killer from striking again.

4 editions

reviewed The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Entertaining SF mystery

No rating

I liked the idea of this book, as a kind of spacefaring Golden Age murder mystery with (literally or metaphorically) champagne receptions, glittering society and so on. There were interesting themes around (ab)uses of power and influence. It was fun trying to guess everyone’s secrets.

I wasn’t quite so taken with the execution, unfortunately. I never really warmed to any of the characters. Tesla’s use of wealth and status to push for whatever she was after at the time felt like an overused bludgeon. And cute doggies are all very well, but Gimlet felt like a Magical Cute Doggie—again, repetitive in use and outcome.

Overall, an entertaining mystery if a bit light on interpersonal nuance for my tastes.

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rated it

4 stars