Paloma

On his return to the Moon after a vacation, Miles Flint receives a message from his mentor begging for his help. When he arrives at her apartment he finds she has been murdered and he is one of the main suspects. His investigation uncovers some disillusioning aspects of Paloma's past.

Whenever I put this down I felt no strong urge to pick it up again. The Bixians were not present enough to be interesting aliens and without them it was a fairly run-of-the-mill mystery.

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn. Paloma. Retrieval Artist No. 5. Roc, 2006.
The woman calling herself Paloma is for Miles Flint the ideal retrieval artist. She seems to him to navigate the complex morality of human-alien interaction better than anyone. When she is murdered, Miles must investigate what turns out to be a legal and ethical morass that could get him killed by a very efficient bioengineered assassin. More noir stuff on the Moon that offers a very wry twist on Dashiell Hammett. I like it.

Ah the revealing of Paloma. I like Paloma. When I first read this book and the next book, The Recovery Man, I felt very betrayed and disillusioned by Paloma. Yet as I continued on in the series I found myself liking Paloma again. As I reread this as my husband reads this series I find Paloma ' s character more real. Miles at times feels too perfect. He doesn't always feel organic, in the later novels Talia helps. Paloma feels real. Her choices, while not ideal feel organic and real. They feel desperate. Miles actions always feel hollow in a way. Paloma and Noelle always feel more authentic with their flaws and inconsistencies.

The fifth installment of the Retrieval Artist series takes place over the course of about 24 hours. Paloma, retired Retrieval Artist, is found in her posh apartment, the victim of a grisly murder. Miles is her main beneficiary, quickly the prime suspect in her murder and also of an explosion of one of her ships, the Dove. That's a lot on a plate, even for a Retrieval Artist.

I really liked that what I suspected about Paloma and her secret involvement with the Wagners was so. When the law firm WSX was introduced, I had hoped this would come back around for a proper explanation and this really delivered. In good news for further reading in the series, the full reckoning is yet to happen. I can't wait to read the takedown.

I thought this one show more was well done (like the others) but admit that I did find myself wanting to skim some of Detective Nyquist's investigative parts because as a reader, I knew Miles was in no way guilty so the details felt a bit tedious. I didn't skim read though and when Nyquist reaches his clarity points it was very satisfying. Noelle didn't have much to do in this one but as she's off in a different level of the Moon security structure, it made perfect sense. She was still used to good effect and had good chemistry with Nyquist so she wasn't entirely tertiary. I do look forward to more about her investigation on all those other quarantined ships as it feels like there's a story or three there. I still don't really care about Ki even though I think decent effort went into rehabbing her and trying to make her relevant for future books. I did very much like attorney, Maxine Van Alen. I'd recommend this one if you're reading the series and you want the intel on Paloma. show less

Paloma is the fifth installment in the Retrieval Artists, a science fiction mystery series following former detective Miles Flint. The series starts with The Disappeared, but since each book is a stand alone mystery, you could theoretically read them independently.

Miles Flint used to be a detective working for the police force of Armstrong, a domed city on the moon. Then he bought a business from a woman named Paloma and became a retrieval artist, someone who goes looking for people who’ve gone into hiding due to alien laws at the behalf of relatives or others who don’t want them to be officially found. Since becoming a retrieval artist, Paloma has acted as a mentor and an adviser for Miles. At the start of the book, he receives an show more emergency message and arrives at her apartment to find a crime scene. Paloma has been murdered. Miles always looked up Paloma, but with her death he’s finding out that she’s not the woman he thought he was. Paloma had a dark side.

One of my favorite things about this series is when it includes aliens and alien cultures. For trade reasons, humans have entered an alliance with other human species that means when humans break a law in alien controlled space, they are liable to prosecution and punishment under alien laws. And given the vast differences between humans and alien species, what aliens consider a crime is not always fathomable to humans. To escape alien justice, people hire a Disappearance Agency who gives them a completely new identity somewhere else. Aliens and alien cultures don’t play a large role in this installment of the series, but the details of the situation are a part of the mystery. While I miss the inclusion of aliens, the exploration of Paloma’s past made up for the lack.

Since the very first book, the series has also included sections from the POV of Noelle DeRicci, who was Miles’s partner when he was on the police force. No longer a detective, DeRicci’s role in the series feels uncertain. She had less page time than ever before, even if she did still have a presence. The two other POV characters are a current detective and a reporter. I think I remember them from prior books, and it’ll be interesting to see if they remain in future ones. I do wonder if all of these sections were necessary. While I like Noelle DeRicci, did she really have a part to play in the plot? Same goes for the reporter. It’s possible that Rusch wanted to keep them fresh for future installments, but I don’t know what they were adding to this one.

With Paloma’s death, the only real friend Miles has left is Noelle, and that connection looks like it may be growing tenuous. Additionally, the revelations regarding Paloma may warn him off from trusting too many other people. I want to see where this goes, even if it takes me forever to track down the next installment in the series. My pacing for this series has been about a book a year, but I’ll see if I can speed it up.

I consider The Retrieval Artist to be a criminally under-known science fiction series, and if you have any interest in a mystery science fiction series, I encourage you to give it a try.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less

A science fiction murder mystery by one of the genre’s best….A book with complex characters, an interesting and unpredictable plot, and timeless and universal things to say about the human condition.

I enjoyed this book, like all in the series. The story of how humans in the future live with aliens, and the compromise of what is legal and what is right.

The series deals with politics, public relations, and justice though in a very light way. In this story Paloma, the mentor of the POV character, Miles Flint, is murdered. Miles becomes not only a suspect, and un-official investigator, but the surprised beneficiary of her estate and her secrets.

The setting is great, the dome on the Moon. The recurring minor characters are good to see, and interesting.

The only fly in the ointment is the story is a bit thin and static. Miles spends most of his time hiding and researching, so minor characters handle the action and investigation. The show more pacing is off because there is a good bit of build up, but then the author seems to run up against some page limit, because the ending is wrapped up too quickly and much too neatly.

Still it was a quick and enjoyable read, and I am looking forward to the next one. show less