A DEATH OF HONOR [Mass Market Paperback]

Joe Clifford Faust (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 1987

THE GIRL WAS SPRAWLED OUT ON THE FLOOR IN THE LIVING ROOM OF HIS APARTMENT.

So begins Joe Clifford Faust's classic science fiction mystery, which has thrilled both SF and non-SF readers since its release nearly 25 years ago. Originally published as a paperback original by Del Rey Books, Honor was also a main selection of the Science Fiction Book Club, where it was given a generic cover and enjoyed crossover sales through the Mystery Guild Book Club. It was also chosen as a Recommended Read in the Crime and Punishment category by the Science Fiction Museum.

The novel takes place in an alternate future where a crumbling United States is one of the few nations left to have fended off Soviet domination. It tells the story of seven days in the life of D.A. Payne, a bioengineer who finds the naked corpse of a woman in his apartment and is compelled to investigate her murder. As he digs deeper into the woman's identity and the cause of her death, he learns things about himself and his world that will conspire to change his life forever.

The electronic editions of Honor also contain bonus material: the novel's original ending - a 2,000 word epilog that was cut before publication - along with an essay from the author telling how it came to be chopped.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Del Rey; First Edition edition (January 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345340264
• ISBN-13: 978-0345340269
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 3.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,689,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joe Clifford Faust was born in North Dakota, raised in Alberta and Wyoming, went to college in Oklahoma, and now lives in Ohio. He has been married for more than thirty years to the same woman, has two adult children, and has worked at a local advertising agency since 1997.

When not writing, he can be found ministering to his Church family, eating chili, badly singing and playing original songs on the guitar, playing wargames, and reading books on his Kindle.

He is currently at work on his next novel, which he says, "May involve either UFOs, amnesia, or dogs. I haven't decided which."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous SF Mystery, November 18, 2004

By 

Patrick Flinn - See all my reviews

This review is from: A DEATH OF HONOR (Mass Market Paperback)

Joe Clifford Faust possesses the rare ability to produce science fiction that is simultaneously fun and substantial, as this fabulous SF mystery from the late 80's demonstrates. The premise is inspired: in the near future, the police are just too damn busy to handle every case, so the 31st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides victims the right and resources to conduct their own investigation.

Our likable protagonist, Payne, finds occasion to take the 31st, when he comes home one evening to find a dead girl in his apartment. Payne and his friend Bailey are club-hopping bachelors (well, everyone is in THIS future society, and that's where the fun comes in), but Payne is also a skilled bio-engineer, so he's prepared to act as his own CSI.

The bio-medicine in Death of Honor is impressively convincing (Faust must have done some serious research here), and handled in a way that the reader can follow. Payne's labwork is used to expose critical plot-points, rather than as an excuse to toss around bleeding-edge buzzwords. In a sense, this novel was considerably ahead of it's time--fifteen years later, we're a nation of forensics buffs.

And Faust really knows how to structure a murder mystery, too; this isn't merely sci-fi tarted up with noir cliches. Neither the mystery nor the SF suffers in this marriage. Also refreshing is the fact that the resolution doesn't involve any shadowy billionaires or evil zaibatsus (well, maybe an ambiguous zaibatsu). ADOH's characters, "villains" included, are ordinary, flawed human beings, plausibly driven to tragic decisions--responses demanded by the corrupt world they inhabit.

Oh, I should add that the ending is a real nail-biter.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars what the future looked like in the 80s., February 22, 2009

By 

Nazani (MidAtlantic) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

"Twenty-first century New York- where power failures are a frequent fact of life..where nightclubs fulfill all your fantasies..and where the only things still considered illegal are murder and trying to get away to one of the last free enclaves, Australia."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put this one down, November 17, 2011

By 

R. Wright (Ponca City, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Death of Honor (Kindle Edition)

This is a great book. It's a sci-fi, intrigue, mystery that'll keep you glued to it until you've finished. It moves well, tells a great story and keeps you guessing until the end. Written in the 80's, it's an interesting look back at what we thought the future might be like and just how close Mr. Faust was with some of it.