Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Fast paced mystery in unique setting
Cons: Some character actions not fully explained at the end,
but a minor detail
The Bottom Line:
Prize winner murdered
And Neptune has a secret
Fast paced and fun book
Sylvia’s Back on the Space Case
Diane Vallere thwarted my attempt to be up to date on at
least one of her current series by publishing not one but two new books in the
Sylvia Stryker Space Case Mysteries in the last couple of months. But that's not really an issue when the books
are as good as I'm Your Venus is.
In case you haven't started this series yet, it is a science
fiction set mystery series. Sylvia
herself is a half human, half alien main character, and the cast of characters
feature more aliens than humans. Now, if
this is starting to scare you off, don't worry in the slightest. The books are still more mystery than science
fiction. We learn a little about some of
these alien races, but the focus is on the mystery and what is means for Sylvia.
It's been three months since we last saw Sylvia, and she has
gotten a new assignment on Moon Unit 6.
She is once again in charge of the uniform department, but this time it
is legitimate. After proving herself in
the last book, she is now a full member of the crew. Neptune is the head of security on this new
ship as well. The ship is heading to
Venus, and everyone is looking forward to a pleasurable trip.
Things fall apart quickly, however, when Sylvia finds a dead
body outside the uniform department. The
victim has clearly been murdered, but worse yet, the victim just won a contest
to be on the ship. Potential PR
disasters are flying through Sylvia's mind when Neptune drops a bombshell on
her, asking for her help to figure out what is happening. Can Sylvia do that while keeping what is
happening quiet?
Just like this isn't your typical location for a mystery,
this isn't a typical mystery plot - at least not the kind that I tend to read
with a victim and a limited number of suspects.
Yes, we do spend some time wondering who killed the victim and why, but
we spend quite a bit of time dealing with the bombshell that Neptune drops and
some of the fallout from that. Not to
worry, this kept me perfectly engaged, and I breezed through the book in just a
couple of days. I was always up for just
one more chapter as I was reading.
When things came together at the end, I did feel like some
of what the characters did along the way didn’t quite make sense. It bothers me some, but on the whole, I
enjoyed the book very much.
The cast of characters are a lot of fun. We really only get to know three of them,
Sylvia, Neptune, and Pika, all of whom were in the first book in the
series. It's just the nature of the book
since these are the three we spend the most time with. The rest of the cast are strong enough for
the parts they play in the book, so this isn’t a complaint, just an observation.
And the setting is a lot of fun. There are the occasional nods to pop culture
science fiction that brought an extra smile to my face, although I'm sure there
are some I missed. While the book may be
lower tech than a pure science fiction book would be, there are some cool
things here that I wouldn't mind having in real life. Heck, the ship itself sounds fantastic. Then again, it is essentially a cruise ship
in space, and who doesn’t love the idea of a good cruise.
Having finished I'm Your Venus, I'm not that sorry that book three is already available. There are some threads left here I can't wait
to see explored. It's just a matter of
finding the time to read that book.
Enjoy more out of this world mystery with the rest of the Sylvia Stryker Mysteries.
Vallere is always a fun read! This is the one series of hers I don't think I've tried yet.
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