Murder by Memory

112 pages

Published 2025

ISBN:: 978-1-250-34224-9

(1 review)

Centuries-old detective Dorothy Gentleman serves as the charming narrator for the ebullient first foray into speculative fiction from romance author Waite (the Feminine Pursuits series). In a far future universe in which people’s consciousnesses can be stored in memory books for easy regeneration into new bodies, Dorothy is the ship detective aboard the interstellar generationship HMS Fairweather. On the same day that passenger Janet Dodds is found dead, Dorothy’s memory book is erased. Fortunately, the ship has an automatic backup and pulls Dorothy into a body previously occupied by banker Gloria Vowell to preserve her consciousness. Suspecting that the death and the erasure are connected, Dorothy investigates. After determining Janet’s death to be a murder, she visits her genius nephew, Ruthie Talmadge, who reveals that he recently discovered how to erase a memory book—and that Gloria’s pockets contain the necessary items to do so. With more digging into Gloria’s life, …

Centuries-old detective Dorothy Gentleman serves as the charming narrator for the ebullient first foray into speculative fiction from romance author Waite (the Feminine Pursuits series). In a far future universe in which people’s consciousnesses can be stored in memory books for easy regeneration into new bodies, Dorothy is the ship detective aboard the interstellar generationship HMS Fairweather. On the same day that passenger Janet Dodds is found dead, Dorothy’s memory book is erased. Fortunately, the ship has an automatic backup and pulls Dorothy into a body previously occupied by banker Gloria Vowell to preserve her consciousness. Suspecting that the death and the erasure are connected, Dorothy investigates. After determining Janet’s death to be a murder, she visits her genius nephew, Ruthie Talmadge, who reveals that he recently discovered how to erase a memory book—and that Gloria’s pockets contain the necessary items to do so. With more digging into Gloria’s life, Dorothy becomes suspicious that an even more elaborate crime is afoot. Waite perfectly blends futuristic technology and cozy mystery with lush descriptions and a twisty plot that delivers at every turn. Readers will be eager to hear more from Dorothy

1 edition

enne📚 reviewed Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

3 stars

This cozy starship mystery novella was billed to me as "Becky Chambers meets Miss Marple" and, sorry book, but I'm going to go with no on both counts. It has vibes of all of these things, but no depth to the mystery, characters, or worldbuilding.

The worldbuilding is a bit wild. I appreciate (but also laugh at) the way that the starship quite explicitly has no cops, only detectives with investigative power as a way to get around cop-centric detective fiction. The book also has UBI, which is a weird concept to extend forward in time to an intergenerational starship that has mind upload. It's all just a little too light that it doesn't hang together.

Ultimately, the mystery is too easily unraveled by the protagonist, but the details are not something the reader could have known about ahead of time. Largely, this feels like it comes from the complication …

This cozy starship mystery novella was billed to me as "Becky Chambers meets Miss Marple" and, sorry book, but I'm going to go with no on both counts. It has vibes of all of these things, but no depth to the mystery, characters, or worldbuilding.

The worldbuilding is a bit wild. I appreciate (but also laugh at) the way that the starship quite explicitly has no cops, only detectives with investigative power as a way to get around cop-centric detective fiction. The book also has UBI, which is a weird concept to extend forward in time to an intergenerational starship that has mind upload. It's all just a little too light that it doesn't hang together.

Ultimately, the mystery is too easily unraveled by the protagonist, but the details are not something the reader could have known about ahead of time. Largely, this feels like it comes from the complication of telling a light science fiction story in the space of a novella, and needing to explain the parameters of the world to the audience (as well as that of the mystery) in that small space.

Tangential musings: * is it a requirement of a cozy mystery to include knitting, even if it's on a spaceship? * furthermore, where does fiber for a knitting shop come from on an interstellar generational starship? * surely other people see the horror in "oh well my previous body died I'll just download into another body with a copy of my memories"? * how do you simultaneously have a world with (faulty) memory-based replicators (hope you remember all the zipper, pleat, and hem details for your clothing!) but also (somehow trustworthy) mind backup of your memories?