Bone Wires [Kindle Edition]

Michael Shean (Author)

Book Description

In the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated not by government but by private companies. In Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a detective in Homicide Solutions. What used to be considered an important – even glamorous – department for public police is very different for the corporate species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job.

That is, until the Spine Thief arrives.

When a serial killer begins harvesting the spinal tissue of corporate employees all over the city, Detective Gray finds himself plunged into the first truly major case of his career. Caught in a dangerous mix of murder, betrayal and conflicting corporate interest, Gray will find himself not only matching wits with a diabolical murderer but grappling with his growing doubt toward his employers in the dawning months of the American tricentennial. A thrilling mystery set in the same world as the Wonderland Cycle, Bone Wires is a grim trip into the streets of the empty future.

Product Details

• File Size: 1197 KB
• Print Length: 301 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press (July 17, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008MOYTZ8
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #366,932 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A challenging and superior sci-fi noir mystery. July 18, 2012

By Alexander Gianturco

Format:Kindle Edition

I've been skeptical of e-books for some time, and I admit that I feared that Bone Wires would be a Blade Runner knockoff full of recycled tropes. It is not - in fact, the book reminds me nothing so much as Iain Banks' 'Use of Weapons' in terms of depth of plot and structure.

There are two separate plot threads in Bone Wires; one is a corporate police detective murder mystery, the other a romance. One of these threads is pitch perfect and increases its intensity as the narrative progresses; the other thread seems progressively more 'wrong' to the reader, and at one point in the book I was shaking my head and fearing that the author had ruined the fiction, that things Did Not Make Sense.

The final act ties these threads together and the sense of 'wrongness' is given a frightening yet appropriate context, proving the author's skill - this is not a straightforward sci-fi noir, but a novel that dares the reader to ask questions and have those questions answered.

Like 'Use of Weapons', you will want to read the book a second time, immediately after finishing it.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Grabs the attention and doesn't let go. September 17, 2012

By Leonard Ashcroft

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Another great book by an author with a clear vision and the ability to weave the story well enough to really suck you in.
There are elements here to make it an enjoyable read to a wide audience. Near future scifi, a bit of a noir-ish detective story, a glimpse into a dark underbelly of society; nothing over the top and all of it accessible and very well told. Characters are believable with a solid backstory to connect them, and while not precisely set in Wonderland and able to stand on it's own, the tie in is there and I immediately found myself wishing for the two related but separate worlds to start being woven more tightly together.
Would I recommend this book? In a heartbeat.

3.0 out of 5 stars Bone Wires has real promise April 25, 2013

By M. O'HARA

Format:Kindle Edition

Michael Shean has used the dystopian future used by many of the cyberpunk authors as a setting for a good old fashioned detective novel. And has done it quite well. The logical extension of policing into a corporate environment with quarterly profits and interdepartmental politics works well.
What doesn't work quite so well are the characters. They just don't quite have the same feel as his settings, nor do their interactions quite come off. Almost and I do hope he keeps writing because this feels like skills that get polished with practice.
So the story is good and the setting is good, the characters just need a little work.

More About the Author

Michael Shean was born amongst the sleepy hills and coal mines of southern West Virginia in 1978. Taught to read by his parents at a very early age, he has had a great love of the written word since the very beginning of his life. Growing up, he was often plagued with feelings of isolation and loneliness; he began writing off and on to help deflect this, though these themes are often explored in his work as a consequence. At the age of 16, Michael began to experience a chain of vivid nightmares that has continued to this day; it is from these aberrant dreams that he draws inspiration.

In 2001 Michael left West Virginia to pursue a career in the tech industry, and he settled in the Washington, DC area as a web designer and graphic artist. As a result his writing was put aside and not revisited until five years later. In 2006 he met his wife, who urged him to pick up his writing once more. Several years of work and experimentation yielded the core of what would become his first novel, Shadow of a Dead Star (2011). Michael is currently signed with Curiosity Quills Press, who has overtaken publication of Shadow of a Dead Star and the other books of his Wonderland Cycle.