Review: Bone Wires

Bone Wires by Michael Shean

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Book Info: Genre: Dark Science Fiction/Police Procedural
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for:

Disclosure: I received a free egalley from Curiosity Quills via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: In the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated not by government but by private companies. In Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a detective in Homicide Solutions. What used to be considered an important – even glamorous – department for public police is very different for the corporate species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job.

That is, until the Spine Thief arrives.

When a serial killer begins harvesting the spinal tissue of corporate employees all over the city, Detective Gray finds himself plunged into the first truly major case of his career. Caught in a dangerous mix of murder, betrayal and conflicting corporate interest, Gray will find himself not only matching wits with a diabolical murderer but grapple with his growing doubt toward his employers in the dawning months of the American tricentennial. A thrilling mystery set in the same world as the Wonderland Cycle, Bone Wires is a grim trip into the streets of the empty future

My Thoughts: This book is the sequel to Shadow of a Dead Star (review link here for places that support links). The first book is actually set two years after this one, which is set in 2076.

I should point out that galleys – even e-galleys – are usually uncorrected proofs, so hopefully this will be fixed in the final copy, but Angie’s eyes kept changing color: first green, then blue, then green again, then blue again... There were also a lot of missing words – mostly “a” and “the” and things like that, but it still broke up the flow a bit.

There was one scene that really bothered me – Dan, the main guy, had a run-in with a Pacification officer who was a serious racist. Dan was thinking to himself how ironic it was that this officer, who was a homosexual, was no longer under stigma for this, yet was a racist – it just felt like “ZOMG look at us, we’re so advanced now that our homosexuals are racist!” It felt... I guess, pushed.

Now you would think with all this complaining I didn’t like it, but that would be wrong. I actually did like it – much better than the first one, which I had a very difficult time finishing. I’m really not certain why I had a difficult time with the first one but enjoyed this one. A lot of it had to do with phrases like “a look that would have shamed a cat with its sheer lack of approval” or “matching the Iceman act with the power of Like-I-Give-A-F***”. Dan is also a great character, and the reader gets a really good feel for him. I enjoyed the character interactions and thought the writer did a great job of keeping us in the dark about the secret behind everything until the denouement.

So, fans of police procedurals set in a futuristic world should enjoy this, as well as those who enjoyed the previous book in this set.



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