First published 2011
Detective John Finch stares at two bodies on the floor of apartment 525 on Manzikert Avenue. One corpse has been severed in half. The other shows no wounds at all. Only one victim is human. Finch works under the new rulers who have transformed Ambergris into a nightmare of decay and control. Buildings collapse or twist into alien growths. Citizens suffer under drugs, camps, and random violence. The occupying forces demand Finch close this strange case within one week. He has no clues and no time. Every faction in the broken city watches him. Spies and rebels circle like vultures. Informers whisper secrets while traitors plot in shadows. Finch must navigate this web of danger while solving an impossible murder. His investigation will uncover truths that reshape Ambergris forever.
Genres: science-fiction, mystery, fantasy, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: detective-story, impossible-crime, world-building
Setting: Ambergris
Period: 21st-century
525 pages · Kindle Edition · Corvus
Content warnings: violence