The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
Review by Cyndi J. (cyndij)
THE SPARE MAN is a fun SF mystery, set on a spaceship heading for Mars. This had to have been inspired by “The Thin Man” movies, and while I know just enough to catch the reference (retired detective, rich wife, little dog, they drink a lot) that’s about it. Possibly it’s funnier if you’re familiar with the movie, but I thought it was amusing enough as is.
Ultra rich and famous Tesla Crane and her retired famous PI husband Shal are on their honeymoon when a person is murdered in the hallway right outside their stateroom. First on the scene, Tesla stays to give comfort to the victim while her husband Shal goes chasing after a fleetingly glimpsed figure.
When security arrives on the scene, they leap to the obvious conclusion and arrest Shal. Tesla, who is so rich that money is never an object, immediately calls her lawyer on Earth. The interactions with the lawyer are one of the funnier bits throughout the book, as the time lag between Earth and the ship increases, so does the delay in conversation. Which means of course that the lawyer is always several minutes behind what’s actually happening on the scene.
It all goes from bad to worse when a body is discovered in the recycling tanks but there is no missing passenger. Then more murders happen, and all of them seemingly point to either Shal or Tesla. The victims all know another very rich passenger, who just happens to own the company that owns the company that owns the spaceship. But what’s the motive? And who is the spare man? The mystery plot gets pretty convoluted; there are a lot of connections to be explored and some red herrings along the way. I didn’t guess the villain, but it was a decent motive, just not an “oh wow” moment.
It’s told from Tesla’s first-person POV, and I felt we don’t get much about the other characters, not even the husband. But the dog is very cute. The security staff are stereotypes (but I did laugh to learn about Bob).
I liked Tesla. She’s intellectually smart, but occasionally lacks common sense. She’s got chronic pain issues from an accident, managed with a brain implant that can scale back pain signals, but supposedly she will have to deal with the aftereffects later. It was interesting and very convenient, but considering all she did there weren’t enough physical consequences later. She’s got a service dog, which was good, but I thought Kowal allowed it to be too much pet and not enough service. And then there’s Tesla’s money. Her wealth and fame basically saved her and Shal, which Kowal has her talk about more than once.
I enjoyed it, although it isn’t going to make my yearly top ten. But there are some things in it (you’ll figure them out) that I think are going to place this book firmly in a time period. It will be interesting to read this in about 10 years and see what holds up.
Tags: Book Reviews, Book Suggestions
