Of All The Gin Joints In The Universe

One detective. Two suspects. A conspiracy big enough to kill them all.

In the 25th Century, Galactic Justice upholds the law across the Milky Way.

They use the HALO to extract confessions from the guilty. For the most heinous of crimes, the guilty are erased and a new personality is uploaded in their place.

Samuel Archer Spade is a private detective on Space Station 1964 on the far edge of the galaxy. He’s a former GalJus Inspector whose conscious couldn’t square with using the HALO.

Spade is at his usual spot, his unofficial office on Norma, when a knockout blonde in a red dress, walks into The Galaxy’s Edge, the station’s bar. She’s on the run from an unwanted admirer.

But when the man arrives on the station, he’s looking to hire Spade himself. He’s claiming she has stolen something from him, As Spade tries to sort out who is telling the truth, GalJus arrives looking for both of his clients for a murder committed on another planet.

Trying to find the truth will lead Spade to discover a dark secret. Some elements within GalJus are using the HALO to frame innocent people. Even worse, they're programming people to commit murder.

That’s a secret GalJus is willing to kill for and both Sam, and his clients, are right at the top of their list.

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WHAT THE REVIEWERS ARE SAYING:

The action is intense. But it also has a lot of humour.

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!

- Steven R. McEvoy - Book Reviews And More

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Fedoras. Trenchcoats. Space cigarettes. Space dames. A hard-boiled detective. Fistfights. Spaceships. Honestly, you could’ve just said “space dames” and I would’ve coughed up my money.

Considering the popularity of pulp detective noir wizards (or one particular wizard, Mr. Dresden), the genre of pulp detective noir in space is tragically underserved. Fundamentally, a hard-boiled detective in space is awesome in of itself. But when multi-genre master Richard Paolinelli takes on the tropes, we end up with far more than the sum of the parts: a pulp noir detective in all his hardboiled glory saving the galaxy in the style of the best space opera.

If you liked the Dresden Files, this tale of a private detective heroically saving the galaxy will be right up your alley. This book is for lovers of pulp detective noir, lovers of traditional space opera, and anyone who wants to see the two put together, done well.

- Brian Heming, Upstream Reviews