This is a sweet and fun cozy murder mystery, set in space, in the future…

Dorothy works on an interstellar ship as a Ship’s Detective.  This ship has been in transit for about three hundred years with all the original travelers.  Each person who boarded the ship three hundred years ago are all pretty much alive (see previous book for exceptions).  As their bodies wear out, their minds are implanted into a new body.  The ship houses a huge archive of memories as each person is required to keep their memories updated, all 9,890 of them. I mistakenly referred to it as a ‘generation ship’ in my last review; since no new generations are created, that wasn’t correct.  The population is intended to stay static until they reach their new world; at which time the contraceptives can be removed.  But until then…no new people.  Except…then where did the baby come from that was deposited on Dorothy’s nephew’s doorstep?

Since her nephew, Rutherford, also known as Ruthie, was expert in writing operational scripts for the sentient Ship Mind, making cocktails, and was devoted to his husband, John, it was darn near impossible to imagine how he would deal with a human infant.  As it turns out, it was love at first sight.

But as Ship’s Detective, it falls to Dorothy to figure out where the baby came from, how it came about, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.  But then someone creeps into Ruthie’s apartment and tries to kidnap the baby; which adds a more dire component into Dorothy’s investigation.  And even more importantly, is the idea that certain people would want to categorize the baby as a stowaway or a piece of luggage; with no rights.

The world-building continues to capture my imagination. Dorothy is a lovely character even though we don’t get into her psyche very deeply.  It’s not that kind of story.  I enjoy her nephew and his husband very much. And I was happy to see Dorothy finally pursue a bit of her own happiness.  The only thing missing for me was the Ship; I would’ve like to have heard more from it.

And even though this isn’t my usual fare; I am enjoying it quite a bit.  ~~ Catherine Book

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