An intriguing, cozy mystery… in space!

A mind is a terrible thing to erase…

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers — just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor — and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting — knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work — and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…

Murder by Memory is an interesting, quirky mystery set on a luxurious interstellar passenger liner. After a slightly strange start, I quickly found myself drawn into the story, and rather enjoyed it.

I don’t want to go into too much detail in this review, because that might spoil some of the innovative elements that Waite’s injected into this future. The author’s created an intriguing future with memory uploading, rejuvenation, and so forth. But what happens when someone is murdered in such a reality? Turns out, there are ways to make a murder stick, and when this happens, detective (of a sort) Dorothy Gentleman is woken to investigate. Dorothy is an excellent guide to this strange and intriguing setting, and Murder by Memory showcases again how great detectives and/or investigators are as protagonists in new settings. As we follow Gentleman’s investigation, readers get to know some of the most important members of the crew/population, as well as an introduction to life on HMS Fairweather.

Murder by Memory is a tightly told mystery tale. The murder plot is, ultimately, quite sinister (beyond the normal amount of sinister for any murder plot), given the nature of life (and death and reawakening) on the ship. There’s definitely plenty of scope for more stories to be told in this setting (and I think I’m right that there are more in the works). I, for one, am looking forward to reading more mysteries on the HMS Fairweather.

I have a feeling a lot of mystery and sci-fi fans are going to enjoy this, especially if you are fans of the more “cosy” offerings in those genres. Recommended.

*

Olivia Waite’s Murder by Memory is due to be published by TorDotCom in North America and in the UK, on March 18th, 2025.

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Review copy received via NetGalley