She Murdered Me with Science, by David Boop
Author: David Boop
Genre: Science fiction/Mystery/Historical
Pages: 288
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads summary: It's 1953 and disgraced scientist Noel Glass works as a P.I. to redeem himself for a deadly experiment that cost the lives of six people, including his fiancée's. In walks a rich recluse who offers information that Glass was framed for the deadly accident. As Glass struggles to clear his name, he uncovers an evil organization bent on using his own invention for world domination. Who can Glass trust when everyone is keeping secrets? His mysterious Japanese sidekick - Wan Lee? The sultry blues singer - Merlot Sterling? The man-mountain bodyguard - Vincent Richmond? From the desolate streets of Industry City, Colorado to a showdown in Chi-town, Glass encounters death at every turn. As he's pursued by two Mayan hit men determined to make him history, Glass must rediscover the self he lost years ago and face off against the one ghost he swore he laid to rest.
Review: I picked up this book because I met the author at one of my library's author programs, and he had this book on his table. The cover, being hilariously bad, caught my eye (as did the title), so of course I had to pick up the book, but the premise sucked me in. I like humorous noir detective stories. I like them a lot more than I like serious noir detective stories, which may be witty but tend to be downers (at least, the ones I've read).
This is stupid, but I have to get it out of the way: David Boop has his narrator say "I could care less" several times, when he means "I couldn't care less". This is a fairly common error, but I expect a writer -- or for God's sake, an editor -- to know better. It made me crazy every time I saw it.
Now I can write about how I otherwise enjoyed the hell out of this book. It's a perfect mix of noir detective story and pulp science fiction, and it's also quite funny (mostly because of Glass' wit and deadpan delivery, which is pretty much a requirement for a noir PI). There is a scene in which the Evil Mastermind (and I won't spoil who it is but it's revealed in an awesome way) maniacally relates the Evil Plan to a boardroom full of Evil Corporate Heads and Politicians, while Glass is held a captive listener; one of the purposes of this speech is for the Evil Mastermind to win Glass over to their side. Right in the middle of the speech, Glass dryly comments that someone should untie his hands so that he can clap, too, totally ruining the moment for Evil Mastermind. It's a short moment, but it made me laugh for a couple minutes, and the book has a lot of these.
The thing about Glass is, he's spent the last ten years believing he's a screw-up, a failure with wasted potential. This gives him that aura of brokenness and hidden vulnerability a noir PI needs, something to connect with underneath his distancing humor, and it accounts for the righteous anger he develops once he realizes he was set up. All he wants to do at the start of the book is clear his name so that he can return to his prestigious university research position, but as he investigates, it’s clear that he’s changed enough to realize that he can never go back. He likes being a PI; he likes the challenge of it, of endlessly figuring out one puzzle after another. He also likes always being right, and because he champions the use of forensics before forensics have been integrated into police investigation (he kind of invents the techniques himself in the book), he is always right. (When he helps the police with investigations, anyway.) His prickly relationship with the police detective he frequently works with is amusing, because Glass enjoys always being right and, of course, no one else does, but the detective still has Glass’ back when he needs it.
Glass’ quest to clear his name turns into a quest to stop the Evil Mastermind from using stolen technology that can pinpoint and implode a person without being anywhere near the target (basically, think of it as a death ray). This is a pretty cool premise and it comes off with B-movie brilliance. It works perfectly with the 50s setting, with its communist paranoia, references to Stalin’s death (which features heavily in the plot), the Korean War, and President Eisenhower (among others), though again, this is obviously a slightly alternate 1950s.
The cover is cheesy in the best way and clearly telegraphs the style of the book (though I think that some people may be surprised by how good the book is with such an obviously low budget cover). This book was plain fun to read, and I think it would make a great cable TV movie (maybe on the Sci-Fi channel?).