Red Planet Blues

Robert J. Sawyer attempts a noir mystery set on Mars in his latest title, Red Planet Blues.  In this book, our detective is living on a Mars that is at the end of a “rush” --- a fossil rush in this case.  He works a number of cases that keep coming back to the same principal mystery involving the location of the original fossil source.  We meet a number of classic noir tropes in the course of the book & reach a satisfying conclusion in the end.  I would recommend this book to a lover of Science Fiction and/or a lover of an old fashioned gumshoe detective mystery.

I must say though, that this is not Sawyer’s best book.  Sawyer has long been one of my favorite SF writers.  I make a point of getting his books in my hands as soon as they are published.  So I would strongly recommend finding one of his earlier works and giving him a try… if you’re not already a fan.  If you’re looking for specific suggestions, I’ve always liked Calculating God or The Terminal Experiment or Factoring Humanity.