Sep 13, 2026
So good I wish there were more stories in this universe!
Over the last few years I have read 36 works from the pen of Richard Paolinelli, not counting his contributions to anthologies. This is the first in what I hope might be a new series. Paolinelli states in the author's note: “First, the idea for this story has its seeds in my desire to write a 1940s-type detective noir story, but set it out in space. I hadn’t gotten around to sitting down to hammer out the story just yet though. Until the day an author, and friend, Natasha Carter, caused the correct two brain cells to collide inside my noggin, that is. Natasha likes to drop posts on Twitter/X and then sit back and watch the reactions. And the chaos too. One fine day she drops this gem: “I’m just here to steal your soul.” Me, being the professional smart aleck that I am, dropped this reply: “With some women, it’s worth the price of admission.” And just like that, the perfect way for the grizzled detective to introduce the femme fatale of this novel sprang into existence. Thinking it was likely only going to be a short story to add to my Dreams of the Storyteller collection, I sat down to plot the story out. It quickly became a series of short stories and then evolved to be long enough to just go ahead and make it a novel. And here we are.” SO in many ways this is a fix-up novel. And as some of know fix-up novels can be masterpieces. J.F. Powers only published 2 novels both were fix-ups and both won the National Book Award. Sam has a conscience, one so string he left the Galactic Justice force because of a tool they were using. He became a PI, likely making his father even more proud of him. And He is set up as far from the seat of GalJus as possible. When in walks a dame in a red dress and his whole life is turned upside down. Somehow this woman has captured his heart and when she is convicted by her own voice and a truth machine called a halo. But something is not sitting right with him, and when he starts digging he finds something even worse than he ever expected. The story is written around 4 sections and 15 chapters, which are: Part I The Lady in Red 1: The P.I. In The Stars 2: The Femme Fatale 3: The Plot Thickens 4: Air-Tight Alabis Abound 5: Whodunit Part II We’ll Never Have Paris 6: With Friends Like These 7: Hell Hath No Fury 8: No Fairytale Endings Part III The Red Reunion 9: Unhappy New Years 10: Partners In Crime 11: Into The Lion’s Den Part IV A Rock and a Hard Place 12: This Island Earth 13: A Man For All Seasons 14: Costly Victory 15: The Immortals Epilogue Author’s Note The action is intense. But it also has a lot of humour. The hat tips to Elon Musk and his character in the story is awesome. A few quotes to give you a feel: “The name is Spade, Samuel Archer Spade. Yes, my old man was a nutcase over the old detective films of the mid-20th Century. Had every one of them on datachip and we must have watched each of them a hundred times. If you’re familiar with the genre, then you already know which was his favorite movie detective. Philip Marlowe was a close second. I consider myself lucky for that.” “Frankly, it’s a miracle the human race is even still around. Back in 2192, the meteor old Elon was worrying about finally showed up and damn near split the planet in half. Fortunately, they’d listened to him and we had already colonized the rest of the solar system, Alpha Centauri, and one or two other nearby systems.” ““You, Sam,” he said. “The Senate has authorized the creation of the Department of Galactic Enforcement. DOGE!”” It was very hard to put the book down. It is a mystery, wrapped in a conspiracy, with a love story at the heart. In some ways this story reminds me of The Carter Files by Lori Janeski. It also reminds me or a lot of old shows I watched with my father including; Mike Hammer, Dirty Harry, and Spencer for Hire to name but a few. And Paolinelli makes homage to several detectives and the whole noir genre through out the work. This is an excellent novel from Paolinelli’s pen. It took me by surprise. A great addition to his complete works. I can easily recommend this story for what an excellent piece of Science fiction mashed up with mystery Noir!
