Book Review | The Body in the Zero Gee Brothel

The Body In The Zero Gee Brothel is a novella (or ‘novelette’ according to the publisher) by Cameron Cooper, the first in a series of tales about a private law enforcer called Ptolemy Lane. I think I’d call it noir scifi. I picked it mainly because it had a Z in the title. I’m glad I did.

The Body in the Zero Gee Brothel (Ptolemy Lane #1)

by Cameron Cooper

Laws are hard to hold, out in the fringes of known space, but Ptolemy Lane is charged with maintaining peace under the dome of Georgina’s Town, among humans, the docile emre and more.

When a body is discovered in a zero gee suite in the local casino’s brothel wing, Lane is reluctant to get involved. The casino is off limits to his style of law keeping. Only, the body is the casino’s owner, Guisy Oakmint, and Doc Lowry is insisting Lane investigate. Lane soon learns why…

“The Body in the Zero Gee Brothel” is the first Ptolemy Lane story in the science fiction series by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper. [goodreads]

My review

Sometimes you see a book that you have to have for some reason. In my case it was to fill in the Z of my Alphabet Soup reading challenge.

So It’s a real bonus when you find an intelligently crafted scifi world, delivered as a noir crime thriller, wrapped up in a first rate but short story. Ptolemy Lane is a law enforcer even though there are no laws on Georgina’s Town, not really. They have no need for them, since everybody wants to come there and stay there, so rocking the boat, disorderly conduct, and making life miserable for your neighbours is not what any one does. But… the richest man in the city is dead, and somebody must have done the deed. That would have been shrugged off had the widow not wanted the will found to prove that she inherited all the riches, and the businesses with it.

It’s richly described, beautifully paced, quickly read, and I love the style. More please…