Review of The Spare Man

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


My elevator pitch for this book is "Murder on the Nile in Space!" Tesla Crane, wealthy heiress and inventor, is on her honeymoon with Shalmaneser "Shal" Steward, her husband who is also a retired private investigator. They are travelling to Mars on a luxury passenger liner. There's a murder onboard and Shal's the prime suspect so Tesla and her service dog Gimlet must investigate.

The above is about as much as I can give away of the plot (it's basically Chapter 1 of the book). All I can say is that the book and the characters therein are delightful. I can also note that Mary Robinette Kowal, the author, makes a number of plot and character reversals. For example, Tesla was in an industrial accident and has both serious back pain and PTSD. Her husband, the PI, is (mostly) locked up, forcing her, the amateur, to investigate. Also, although the book is inspired by the 1930s movie "The Thin Man" pretty much everything including gender roles have been updated for this novel.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and hope to see more of these characters.



View all my reviews