New Book Alert: Fractured Lives (An Angela Hardwicke Sci-Fi Mystery) by Russ Colchamiro; Science Fiction World Builds A Gripping Mystery

 

New Book Alert: Fractured Lives (An Angela Hardwicke Sci-Fi Mystery) by Russ Colchamiro; Science Fiction World Builds A Gripping Mystery 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Remember earlier this year when I praised settings in mystery novels? In works like Under The Volcano A Quito Murder Mystery and Indecent Exposure A Father Hardy Alaskan Mystery the settings were so intrinsic to the plot that they went hand in hand. That is doubly true when Murder Mysteries are cross bred with Science Fiction. Many of the mysteries are set on another planet, another galaxy, another universe, or in cyberspace. 

The authors not only build a different world with unusual characters, lifestyles, and societies but they also have to consider the laws, penalties, and the socioeconomic structure that often lends itself to producing the crime.

One of the most engaging science fiction mystery worlds is Eternity in Russ Colchamiro's Fractured Lives: An Angela Hardwick Sci-Fi Mystery. According to Angela, Eternity is the cosmic realm responsible for the design, creation, and maintenance of the entire Universe. As a private eye, Angela's past cases have involved investigating android murders. shapeshifters, disfigured wormholes, alternate dimensions, and "a miles long helix of the Universe's DNA."

In fact everyone works for Eternity in one capacity or another. Some design the patterns of the galaxies, others like Angela's missing husband are Patches, they repair tears and holes in the Universe. Even children like Angela's son, Owen are trained to perform some job to help keep the Universe running. (Owen shows an aptitude for Patching like his father.)

Angela says that this society's drive to keep Eternity running is not only important to the residents, but to the Minders those who oversee the Cosmos. The Minders, Angela says "want us to accept that as Eternitarians we're all just stardust in living form. That we are the Universe and the Universe is us and all the existential wank that comes with it."

So Angela knows that she has a job to keep the Cosmos running by solving mysteries and stopping those who harm the people from making Eternity unravel. Her most recent case happens when Wanda Fyne walks into her office to hire Angela to find her daughter, Darla. Darla is a student at The Wrolen School of Celestial Design, and she's not actually missing. At least her body is present, but someone has stolen a part of her soul.

One minute Darla was a brilliant overachieving plucky enthusiastic college student, the next she became a sullen mistrusting argumentative and distant teen. In a normal world, that could just mean that she has developed a mental Illness, under a lot of stress and pressure from school, or acting like a typical rebellious teen. 

However in this Universe, something more sinister has happened. Angela, and her sidekick/assistant, Eric Whistler, who is also a family friend of The Fynes, discover that Darla has been left fractured and the missing part of her soul has been taken on behalf of a strange figure called The Scarlet Raj.

Fractured Lives dances a delicate balance between the Science Fiction and Mystery genres. Angela walks through the usual tropes of a mystery like interviewing the student advisor and Dean of the Wrolen School, Darla's fellow classmates, and getting intimate details about the Fyne's stormy marriage. Then something comes along to remind you that yes, this is a Science Fiction world. The students don't just create art of the cosmos, they are literally cosmic designers. Only a select few are chosen for their designs to be used among the stars. It's a cutthroat competition and only a few are selected. It's easy to see why there is a high dropout rate and why designs are often stolen.

The Scarlet Raj herself is a contradiction even by eyewitness accounts.  Not many have seen her and when she moves, even vid cams don't always catch her. She is a striking presence in front of her designers and they are often left fractured when they encounter her. Even Angela and Whistler are left briefly intimidated by her appearance. They know that she is the source for the soul stealing but they don't know who she actually is. The Scarlet Raj is a projected identity, but they don't know by who or what their goal is.

The investigation also opens up troubled aspects in Angela and Whistler's lives. Angela has to deal with her feelings towards the father of her child and a long buried secret from her youth. Whistler has to contend with his abandoned neglected childhood as he peers into the sordid private lives of the Fynes, a family that he once felt secure abd protected around. They are troubled noir hardboiled detectives in an automated alien world of the future.

Fractured Lives is a great union of Mystery and Science Fiction. Criminals commit crimes  and detectives fly into the stars to catch them.