The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
Dec. 9th, 2023 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
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 travelling incognito and is revealing 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.
It’s the future.
Tesla Crane is one of the most famous people in the universe - heiress to the Crane family fortune and a famous inventor in her own right for her work in robotics (notwithstanding an infamous disaster during one experiment that left several people dead and her with chronic back pain for which she had to get her spine reconstructed and left her reliant on a pain inhibitor implanted in her brain). Not that anyone on the Lindgren (a luxurious interplanetary space liner that carries passengers from the Moon to Mars) knows that. So far as the other passengers are concerned, she’s Mx Artesia Zuraw who is 5 days into her honeymoon with Shalmaneser ‘Shal” Steward (famous in his own right through his work as a private detective but who is now retired and known to the other passengers as Mishal Husband) and her service dog, an insanely cute Westie called Gimlet who helps her manage her PTSD.
Although Tesla and Shal have been enjoying both their anonymity and their time together, it all comes to a crashing end when Shal stumbles on one of the other passengers being attacked by a knife-wielding assassin. Although Shal goes after the killer, he loses track of them in the ship’s many corridors. Worse, a witness to the attack identifies Shal as the killer, and so the ship’s remarkably stupid Security Chief Wisor decides that makes him the prime suspect - especially when it turns out that the victim - George Saikawa - worked for a guy Shal investigated for fraud some years earlier and Shal’s fingerprints are found on the murder weapon.
But being rich and famous carries a lot of advantages - including her friend and lawyer back on Earth Fantine - whose ability to browbeat even the most stubborn of festering chowderheads despite a time delay in communications secures Shal’s release from the ship’s brig. Realising that Wisor is never going to identify the real killer, Tesla and Shal (with Gimlet’s help) must investigate Saikawa’s death themselves. This means getting to know their fellow well-to-do passengers on the ship, and uncovering just why Saikawa was targeted, even if that means using all of the power and privilege at Tesla’s disposal …
Mary Robinette Kowal’s SF mystery is a delightful homage to Dashiell Hammet’s THE THIN MAN, featuring a great central couple and making astute observations about fame, privilege and wealth. Although the mystery is a little thin, the side characters (especially Fantine who I adored) and their interactions carry you along and I admired how Kowal looks at what it is to live with chronic pain and loved the way everyone falls in love with Gimlet.
Although I have never gotten around to reading THE THIN MAN by Dashiell Hammet, I am very familiar with the film series starring William Powell and Myrna Loy (which are fabulous and well worth a few hours of your time) and you can see the influence in Kowal’s very open homage. There is a distinctly old-fashioned quality to the fabulous insults that Fantine and Tesla throw at Wisor in particular that are hugely entertaining and the fact that alcohol forms a central part of the book (each chapter is headed with a cocktail recipe) evokes a sense of 30s Hollywood glamour.
Tesla and Shal are great characters and a great couple. I completely believed in them as honeymooners and in Tesla’s fears for her husband - particularly when Wisor fixes on him as a suspect and how Shal in turn is concerned about Tesla pushing her anti-pain implants too hard and causing herself more damage. There’s a genuine spark between them and the banter works particularly well too.
This is a story that largely takes place among the wealthy and well to do and I think Kowal does well at showing how seductive power and wealth can be. At the same time Tesla is very aware of how position and Shal - coming from a less wealthy background - calls her out on when she is using her privilege against the wrong people. I would have liked a bit more character depth on Kuznetsova (the owner of Lindgren who is travelling on board to move permanently to Mars) and the couple Annie and Jalna Smith (the latter also a famous roboticist) although I still enjoyed what’s there. Likewise I enjoyed Shal and Tesla’s interactions with Officer Tess Piper, a competent security officer who’s a sucker for Gimlet’s charms but still good at her job. Gimlet is definitely the star of the show and a genius decision by Kowal was to have characters talk to Gimlet as people generally speak with dogs, which really tickled me.
The SF elements work well - there’s a lot of technology in this future but it’s not a magical solution to all problems - Tesla finds that her communications device can be restricted and switched off at Wisor’s will and there’s a delay in communications with Fantine on Earth that grows longer the further the ship gets away from it. Kowal (as you would expect) handles it all very smoothly so you can follow what the different types of tech are and how the science works on the ship.
If I’m being honest, I think that the mystery meanders a bit and pacing-wise doesn’t really start to pick up pace until the final quarter. However when the journey is this much fun, I find that I didn’t really mind that and when the resolution comes it is satisfying and I did realise how it had been seeded throughout the earlier elements of the book.
All in all, found this an entertaining read that kept me hooked from beginning to end. If Kowal is ever minded to write a sequel to this then I would most definitely check it out and will also make a point of going back and checking out Kowal’s back catalogue.
The Verdict:
Mary Robinette Kowal’s SF mystery is a delightful homage to Dashiell Hammet’s THE THIN MAN, featuring a great central couple and making astute observations about fame, privilege and wealth. Although the mystery is a little thin, the side characters (especially Fantine who I adored) and their interactions carry you along and I admired how Kowal looks at what it is to live with chronic pain and loved the way everyone falls in love with Gimlet.
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 travelling incognito and is revealing 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.
It’s the future.
Tesla Crane is one of the most famous people in the universe - heiress to the Crane family fortune and a famous inventor in her own right for her work in robotics (notwithstanding an infamous disaster during one experiment that left several people dead and her with chronic back pain for which she had to get her spine reconstructed and left her reliant on a pain inhibitor implanted in her brain). Not that anyone on the Lindgren (a luxurious interplanetary space liner that carries passengers from the Moon to Mars) knows that. So far as the other passengers are concerned, she’s Mx Artesia Zuraw who is 5 days into her honeymoon with Shalmaneser ‘Shal” Steward (famous in his own right through his work as a private detective but who is now retired and known to the other passengers as Mishal Husband) and her service dog, an insanely cute Westie called Gimlet who helps her manage her PTSD.
Although Tesla and Shal have been enjoying both their anonymity and their time together, it all comes to a crashing end when Shal stumbles on one of the other passengers being attacked by a knife-wielding assassin. Although Shal goes after the killer, he loses track of them in the ship’s many corridors. Worse, a witness to the attack identifies Shal as the killer, and so the ship’s remarkably stupid Security Chief Wisor decides that makes him the prime suspect - especially when it turns out that the victim - George Saikawa - worked for a guy Shal investigated for fraud some years earlier and Shal’s fingerprints are found on the murder weapon.
But being rich and famous carries a lot of advantages - including her friend and lawyer back on Earth Fantine - whose ability to browbeat even the most stubborn of festering chowderheads despite a time delay in communications secures Shal’s release from the ship’s brig. Realising that Wisor is never going to identify the real killer, Tesla and Shal (with Gimlet’s help) must investigate Saikawa’s death themselves. This means getting to know their fellow well-to-do passengers on the ship, and uncovering just why Saikawa was targeted, even if that means using all of the power and privilege at Tesla’s disposal …
Mary Robinette Kowal’s SF mystery is a delightful homage to Dashiell Hammet’s THE THIN MAN, featuring a great central couple and making astute observations about fame, privilege and wealth. Although the mystery is a little thin, the side characters (especially Fantine who I adored) and their interactions carry you along and I admired how Kowal looks at what it is to live with chronic pain and loved the way everyone falls in love with Gimlet.
Although I have never gotten around to reading THE THIN MAN by Dashiell Hammet, I am very familiar with the film series starring William Powell and Myrna Loy (which are fabulous and well worth a few hours of your time) and you can see the influence in Kowal’s very open homage. There is a distinctly old-fashioned quality to the fabulous insults that Fantine and Tesla throw at Wisor in particular that are hugely entertaining and the fact that alcohol forms a central part of the book (each chapter is headed with a cocktail recipe) evokes a sense of 30s Hollywood glamour.
Tesla and Shal are great characters and a great couple. I completely believed in them as honeymooners and in Tesla’s fears for her husband - particularly when Wisor fixes on him as a suspect and how Shal in turn is concerned about Tesla pushing her anti-pain implants too hard and causing herself more damage. There’s a genuine spark between them and the banter works particularly well too.
This is a story that largely takes place among the wealthy and well to do and I think Kowal does well at showing how seductive power and wealth can be. At the same time Tesla is very aware of how position and Shal - coming from a less wealthy background - calls her out on when she is using her privilege against the wrong people. I would have liked a bit more character depth on Kuznetsova (the owner of Lindgren who is travelling on board to move permanently to Mars) and the couple Annie and Jalna Smith (the latter also a famous roboticist) although I still enjoyed what’s there. Likewise I enjoyed Shal and Tesla’s interactions with Officer Tess Piper, a competent security officer who’s a sucker for Gimlet’s charms but still good at her job. Gimlet is definitely the star of the show and a genius decision by Kowal was to have characters talk to Gimlet as people generally speak with dogs, which really tickled me.
The SF elements work well - there’s a lot of technology in this future but it’s not a magical solution to all problems - Tesla finds that her communications device can be restricted and switched off at Wisor’s will and there’s a delay in communications with Fantine on Earth that grows longer the further the ship gets away from it. Kowal (as you would expect) handles it all very smoothly so you can follow what the different types of tech are and how the science works on the ship.
If I’m being honest, I think that the mystery meanders a bit and pacing-wise doesn’t really start to pick up pace until the final quarter. However when the journey is this much fun, I find that I didn’t really mind that and when the resolution comes it is satisfying and I did realise how it had been seeded throughout the earlier elements of the book.
All in all, found this an entertaining read that kept me hooked from beginning to end. If Kowal is ever minded to write a sequel to this then I would most definitely check it out and will also make a point of going back and checking out Kowal’s back catalogue.
The Verdict:
Mary Robinette Kowal’s SF mystery is a delightful homage to Dashiell Hammet’s THE THIN MAN, featuring a great central couple and making astute observations about fame, privilege and wealth. Although the mystery is a little thin, the side characters (especially Fantine who I adored) and their interactions carry you along and I admired how Kowal looks at what it is to live with chronic pain and loved the way everyone falls in love with Gimlet.
