The Spare Man

This was an okay book by a writer who has written some terrific stuff, including the Hugo and Nebula Award winning The Calculating Stars. It's a murder mystery aboard a spaceship traveling between the Moon and Mars during the ultra-rich main character's honeymoon. Reading this book felt like a throwaway, kind of fun, kind of suspenseful, a little science fiction-ish; certainly not up to par with the Lady Astronaut series. The best part about the book was the characterization. I didn't get lost in the number of characters and there was a cute service dog that distracted me when the plot got boring. I'm guessing this got a 2023 Hugo nomination on the strength of her previous books rather than on the quality of this one. Of the four of the six nominees I read so far, this one was the weakest.

Come visit my blog for the full review...