Extremes

Kristine Kathryn Rusch 2003 Buy from Amazon.com

This is the second Retrieval Artist novel, and contains many of the same characters as The Disappeared. Miles Flint is now working as a retrieval artist, having taken over the business previously run by Paloma. Although he has no need of money now, he continues to work, and he wonders why. Is it that he wants to feel useful, or that he is forever trying to protect those who are helpless?

Flint is approached by a lawyer who suspects that another retrieval artist has been murdered by a disappeared. The disappeared, a woman called Frieda Tey, fled after killing a dome full of people during an experiment using a mutated cold virus. Now the retrieval artist trying to find her is dead from a cold. Tey believed that in extreme circumstances, some people would take charge, excel and save themselves. Her experiment failed, but she may not have changed her opinions.

Meanwhile Flint’s old partner Noelle DeRicci has been assigned to a routine case of a marathon runner’s death outside the dome. The moon marathon is a tourist draw, and no one expects, or wants, this to be anything but an accident. Unfortunately it’s clearly murder, and the situation becomes more sinister as the people finishing the course become ill with the Tey virus.

Rusch writes with energy and a clear, sophisticated rhythm. Despite the complexity of the clues, the circumstances, and the short time frame, everything is easy to follow. Even the information about concepts like the environmental suits and the virus are broken down in ways that feel like the familiarity of knowledge rather than sounding like tech-speak.

I’ve been looking forward to reading the next retrieval artist novel and I wasn’t disappointed. It keeps the twists coming, and gives just enough clues to keep you guessing without ruining the surprises.

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