Customer Reviews

Paloma: A Retrieval Artist Novel (#5)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I like Rusch's Retrieval Artist series in general, but this book left me a bit unsatisfied.

As the back cover reveals, Miles' mentor Paloma is killed and he's not about to leave that alone, even when he becomes a suspect. Things become a bit more interesting when Miles inherits a MacGuffin -- something everyone seems to want, but no one is quite sure what it is.

If you are new to the series, do not start here. The story depends on your feelings about Miles and his former partner DeRicci, among others. One may be better off starting with The Disappeared (the 1st book in the series) or Extremes (the 2nd).

So, on to the meat of the review....

The good parts:
I am fond of the characters. Here, as in other books in the series, the story is told from multiple points of view, here primarily Miles and Nyquist (the detective investigating Paloma's death). This means the reader often has more information than either character, but each tends to find similar clues at around the same time, so one doesn't spend much time mentally tapping one's feet waiting for the characters to catch up. This does, at times, lead to some odd coincidences, but nothing that will badly strain suspension of disbelief.

Miles finds out some things about Paloma that he'd prefer not to know, a not uncommon problem for anyone investigating a loved one's passing. There are some well-written character moments.

The story includes more background on the early history of Earth's contact with other races, the first Dissappearance Service, and the first Trackers and Retrieval Artists. For the most part, the exposition is worked into the plot well.

I like Rusch's information and crime scene descriptions and the feel she gives to the hard pressed officers of Armstrong's police and port police.

The Bad Parts:
Not enough aliens. The series often deals with human interactions with aliens and often with Miles thwarting alien efforts to exact draconic penalties on Miles' clients. The alien angle to this story is slight, and the aliens motivations less interesting than the Disty or the Wygnin.

One of Miles' antagonists appears fairly early in the book and drives much of the action, but there's little depth given to his motivations and reasons. Many of the characters talk about his power, contacts, and influence, but we don't really see these qualities demonstrated. He doesn't seem to pose enough risk to Miles to make him a good adversary.

There's some odd pacing between the plot and character development. I found myself noting that Miles learns about the MacGuffin by about page 70, but doesn't actually get to see it until nearly page 200, and even then there are more delays before it is examined and explained. While I like the character development, it does overshadow the plot at times.

The MacGuffin is protected by a series of administrative barriers. There's a good explanation for one of those barriers, but no good reason given for the others to exist. It feels like an odd loose end.

There's a sudden dramatic event that leads to Miles being on the run and ups the ante of consequences. It feels like this scene was important to the plot and to Nyquist's actions, but when Nyquist finds out who was behind the dramatic action and why, it feels anticlimatic both in the off-screen resolution which is reported to Nyquist and it seems out of character for the instigator considering the risk to innocents and the instigator's presented goals.

A normal police procedue in a homicide is to suspect the victim's family and friends. Miles becomes a suspect immediately, but there's a curious delay in investigating Paloma's kin. Had Nyquist pursued that angle, he might have avoided about a third of the plot.

In the opening paragraph, Miles is deprived of his office by a malfunctioning environmental system. This is a useful plot device, as it forces Miles away from his own resources, but it feels tacked on -- more could have been done with Miles' discomfort at being a snail forced from his shell dealing with a difficult situation without his usual resources.

All in all, worth my time, but not as gripping as other books in the series.

Let me start by saying that I admit to being slightly biased with the number of stars as this series is my current favorite of all the books I read. That said I thought Paloma was the best book in the series since Extremes (my personal favorite). This book was a good tie-in to the first book of the series, whereas the last three could be read as stand alones. I recommend re-reading the first before this one if you are a fan of the series.

I agree with other reviewers that there was a lack of aliens in this one. However, I think that is made up for as character development is well explored in the novel and not just for our main guy Miles Flint. I found myself even sympathizing with a character I had previously disliked. Also, Miles struggle to come to terms with who Paloma really was and his idea of her made for a more exciting read than I expected. The beginning did have a odd pace, but by the end I was almost shaking with anticipation while reading the short, few page chapters that comprised the majority of the last 100 pages.

A good read for both mystery and sci fi fans, but read other books in the series first.

Paloma is the fifth Retrieval Artist novel. In order, they are The Disappeared, Extremes, Consequences, Buried Deep and Paloma. Read them in order! This book in unique in the series because we have met or heard about all of the main characters. Miles comes back from a much needed vacation after the events in Buried Deep. He isn't in Armstrong long when he gets an odd and frantic call from Paloma, the woman who trained him to be a Retrieval Artist. In fact, Paloma laid down the moral code that Miles follows, and he bought his business from her. Miles runs to her side only to find out that she has been brutally murdered, probably long before he got her car. The police are already on the scene when he arrives, and Miles becomes a suspect. Suspicions rise even more when it is determined that Miles is Paloma's heir. The will is contested, and the prestigious and dirty law firm of Wagner, Stuart, and Xendor (remember them from increasingly intense brushes in the other books) becomes involved in both the will and the murder investigation.

Paloma's death and the events that follow bring Miles Flint, the Wagner's, Ki Bowles, Noelle DeRicci, and Detective Nyquist into sharp contrast with one another and events. It closes a lot of the action and side plots we have brushed against in the other books. Also, we learn that although we knew Paloma was a mysterious and secretive woman, most of us only skimmed the surface when we were speculating what that was all about...

Additionally, for those that don't like the humans being subject to alien law and punishment aspect of the books, there are more details about how that situation began that might clarify why the author uses it as the cornerstone. After all, if you spray paint cars in Singapore, you are going to get caned because that is the law there and you, no matter who you are, are subject to local law. What the early human-based corporations did was far, far worse than a little spray paint and all in the name of profit.

I still love these books and eagerly await the next one.

When ex-cop Miles Flint left the Moon's police force to become a Retrieval Artist, it was the woman known only as Paloma who taught him the ropes of the profession, and then sold him her business when she retired. Having spent some time away from the moon, wrestling with his conscience over a case that turned ugly and thinking of retiring himself, Miles returns just in time to recieve her call for help -- but not in time to get to her apartment before she is brutally murdered. Since by definition all of a Retrieval Artist's clients have alien enemies, Miles thinks her death might have been because of one of her past cases, but the police aren't interested in his help, and in fact are seriously considering him for the role of "suspect." When he decides to investigate the murder, if only to protect himself, every answer he finds just seems to lead to more questions. Why did Paloma have not one but two space ships, and why has one of them been in quarantine for decades? What secret is hidden in the millions of computer files she willed to him, rather than the family that, until her death, he hadn't even known she had? And what was the "biochemical goo" at the scene of the murder that had the HazMat teams baffled?



From the back cover:

As a Retrieval Artist, Mile Flint helps the Disappeared, saving the lives of those oppressed under the Earth Alliance regime. He owes his livelihood, and his very sense of honor, to a woman known as Paloma. It was she who was responsible for setting him on this path -- and now she has been murdered.

Summoned by Paloma's desperate call, Miles reaches her apartment too late. She is already dead, and a seemingly indifferent police force wants no part of Miles's offer of assistance. So he undertakes his own investigation and uncovers a link between Paloma's death and the Moon's largest law firm. The executives there are known to be ruthless -- and they have a secret they are clearly willing to kill to protect...

Paloma (2006) is the fifth SF novel in the Retrieval Artist series, following Buried Deep. In the previous volume, DeRicci got another promotion. Flint discovered who murdered the woman on Mars and the Disty took care of the matter. Bowles got a public putdown from the Governor-General.

In this novel, Miles Flint is a Retrieval Artist on the Moon. He had been traveling for some months now, but he decides to return home.

Noelle DeRicci is now the Moon Security Chief for the United Domes. Her prompt restrictions on the fleeing Disty saved the Moon from riots and other forms of panic. She owes these efforts to a call from Flint.

Paloma is the woman who sold Flint her business. She had also taught him everything he knows about the Retrieval Artist profession. She had even loaned her spaceyacht to him in a previous case.

Bartholomew Nyquist is a detective in the Armstrong Police Department. He is a loner, never keeping a partner very long. He also doesn't like politics.

Ki Bowles is a news media journalist. She is employed by InterDome Media, but has lost many of her privileges since the DeRicci debacle. She needs to think about her career.

In this story, Noelle has an office overlooking the bombsite near the Armstrong Dome. It reminds her that she has to keep abreast of the threats facing the Moon. She considers Flint as a good friend, even if he is skirting the edge of the laws.

Flint returns to his office to discover it covered in moondust. The dust has come in through the cracks in the permaplast walls. Apparently, his filtration system failed during the past few months. While he is viewing his dust covered office, Flint receives an emergency message from Paloma.

When he arrives at Paloma's apartment, Flint finds the police have occupied the building. Apparently he had been noticed on the way, for Nyquist meets him outside at the police line. Flint asks to visit the crime scene and Nyquist allows him to enter. There is a slight argument over the protective covering -- which can be used either to keep debris away from the crime scene or to protect evidence inside the wrapping -- but Nyquist agrees to let him keep the suit.

Climbing to the ninth floor, Flint finds the lobby splattered with blood and other organic substances near the elevator. The blood leads back into the living room. Paloma's body is crumpled near the window.

Flint realizes that Paloma had been killed in the lobby and brought back to the window. He wonders what the spatters on the wall are and finds that the police techs are wondering the same thing. The systems in the building had called a hazmat alert because of the biological goo. This had caused the evacuation and the first calls to the police.

When Flint left the apartment, he carried the protective suit to the Emmeline, his yacht. There he finds Bowles lingering near his ship. He asks her what she is doing there and refuses to let her use any shots or audio of him. Bowles states that she wasn't looking for him and leaves when he insists.

Then Flint visits the Dove, Paloma's yacht. He learns that he is allowed entry to anyplace on the ship. In the control room, a holo appears and plays a last message from Paloma. He finds that she has left her estate to him.

The hologram also informs him that Paloma had been Lucianna Stuart, a founding partner in Wagner, Stuart and Xendor. WSX is the premier law firm on the Moon and has subsidiaries and associates throughout Alliance Space. It also tells him that another ship -- the Lost Seas -- is owned by her and contains more files.

This tale involves a group of alien assassins -- the Bix -- who have been searching for Lucianna Stuart. Aliens are baffled by legal name changes. So the Bix were not searching for someone named Paloma.

Yet they apparently have found her, maybe on a tip from her son. Now Nyquist is looking for Claudius Wagner, Paloma's husband and the father of Justinian and Ignatius Wagner.

This story is mostly about the humans, but the Bix initiate the whole tale. The next novel in this series is Recovery Man. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Rusch fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of private investigations, alien societies, and personal relationships.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Paloma is the latest in her Retrieval Artist series. These are SF mysteries set mostly on the Moon. The putative main character is Miles Flint, a Retrieval Artist -- that is, a man who searches for people who have changed identities (usually in order to avoid absurdly draconian alien laws). But several other characters have become important: all these books are told in short chapters from multiple points of view. Policewoman turned Moon Security Chief Noelle de Ricci, one of Flint's few friends, is the secondary main character. And this book includes threads following Benjamin Nyquist, another cop, and also Ki Bowles, a villainous reporter from a previous book who has been shamed and demoted for attempting to smear De Ricci.

As this book opens Flint has returned to the Moon after a long absence, and almost immediately he gets a panicked call from his retired mentor Paloma. He rushes to her apartment but too late -- she has been brutally murdered. Nyquist, who he knows slightly, is the investigator, so Flint gets to look at the scene -- but then it becomes clear he might be a suspect. It turns out he has inherited most of Paloma's fortune. And she leaves him a message insisting he look into some questionable dealings in her past life as a lawyer for the Moon's most prominent firm.

So Flint finds himself with multiple problems: he's trying to figure out who killed Paloma and why, while trying to dodge the police who want to detain him, and also trying to deal with the enmity of the current head lawyer at Paloma's old firm -- who turns out to actually be Paloma's son. De Ricci's involvement is actually minimal -- more a matter of setting up an involvement between her and Nyquist. And Ki Bowles is struggling to redeem herself. The actual mystery is fairly interesting, concerning some ethical missteps -- or much worse -- by Paloma and her colleagues, and alien assassins, and twisted family politics. It's pretty entertaining, as long as you get past some of the implausibilities inherent in the whole setup -- and if you're reading this far into the series, I suppose you ought to be at the point of accepting those implausibilities as givens. I find myself enjoying these novels a fair bit, as the series continues. And the ongoing story arc involving the personal lives of the characters seems poised to take some interesting turns in the future.