|
Publisher:
Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) |
Release
Date: January 2004 |
ISBN:
0743464974 |
Awards:
|
Format
Reviewed: Paperbacks |
Buy
it at Amazon US
|| UK |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
SF/TV Tie-in |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewer
Notes: |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
|
The
Case of the Colonist's Corpse
Star Trek
S.
By Bob Ingersoll
& Tony Isabella
A Star Trek whodunit?
I am amazed that there hasn't been a whole lot of them, for the
marriage of this popular series with the well-loved genre of crime
is obviously going to be a very happy one. With its red-stained
pages and cover, it looks like one of those pulp paperbacks from
the golden age of crime fiction, and therefore hard to resist. Set
during the original series, this is a case for the irascible and
iconoclastic Samuel T Cogley, the lawyer who got Kirk off from a
court-martial charge. Aneher II is a planet shared by the Klingons
and the Federation under terms dictated by the Organian Peace Treaty.
The colonists on both sides have worked hard to make something out
of an overheated hell of a planet, but all is not well. Are the
Klingons cheating by drafting in new mine workers and is there a
spy about? Unpopular Administrator Daniel Latham has his work cut
out for him to oversee such a hotbed of unrest, but surely nobody
would hate him enough to murder him? A Klingon bending over his
dead body with a phaser seems the most likely suspect, but as Cogley
is going to defend him the show isn't over yet
There is a lot to enjoy in here, from the
broadly sketched planet Aneher II and its denizens to the whodunit
plot itself. Kirk gets to woo an old lady friend, there is a compelling
trial scene (very Perry Mason) and of course the build-up to the
murder with various suspects being introduced. It isn't a fat plot,
but I wondered whether any sequels (yes please) would put that right,
honing the suspense and adding another plot strand or two. It's
a good effort for a first in a new series, or as a stand-alone within
the framework of this vast invented universe. Not great, but I hope
to get the chance to read another. |