Paloma

Paloma (2006) is the fifth SF novel in the Retrieval Artist series, following Buried Deep. In the previous volume, DeRicci got another promotion. Flint discovered who murdered the woman on Mars and the Disty took care of the matter. Bowles got a public putdown from the Governor-General. In this novel, Miles Flint is a Retrieval Artist on the Moon. He had been traveling for some months now, but he decides to return home. Noelle DeRicci is now the Moon Security Chief for the United Domes. Her prompt restrictions on the fleeing Disty saved the Moon from riots and other forms of panic. She owes these efforts to a call from Flint. Paloma is the woman who sold Flint her business. She had also taught him everything he knows about the Retrieval Artist profession. She had even loaned her spaceyacht to him in a previous case. Bartholomew Nyquist is a detective in the Armstrong Police Department. He is a loner, never keeping a partner very long. He also doesn't like politics. Ki Bowles is a news media journalist. She is employed by InterDome Media, but has lost many of her privileges since the DeRicci debacle. She needs to think about her career. In this story, Noelle has an office overlooking the bombsite near the Armstrong Dome. It reminds her that she has to keep abreast of the threats facing the Moon. She considers Flint as a good friend, even if he is skirting the edge of the laws. Flint returns to his office to discover it covered in moondust. The dust has come in through the cracks in the permaplast walls. Apparently, his filtration system failed during the past few months. While he is viewing his dust covered office, Flint receives an emergency message from Paloma. When he arrives at Paloma's apartment, Flint finds the police have occupied the building. Apparently he had been noticed on the way, for Nyquist meets him outside at the police line. Flint asks to visit the crime scene and Nyquist allows him to enter. There is a slight argument over the protective covering -- which can be used either to keep debris away from the crime scene or to protect evidence inside the wrapping -- but Nyquist agrees to let him keep the suit. Climbing to the ninth floor, Flint finds the lobby splattered with blood and other organic substances near the elevator. The blood leads back into the living room. Paloma's body is crumpled near the window. Flint realizes that Paloma had been killed in the lobby and brought back to the window. He wonders what the spatters on the wall are and finds that the police techs are wondering the same thing. The systems in the building had called a hazmat alert because of the biological goo. This had caused the evacuation and the first calls to the police. When Flint left the apartment, he carried the protective suit to the Emmeline, his yacht. There he finds Bowles lingering near his ship. He asks her what she is doing there and refuses to let her use any shots or audio of him. Bowles states that she

Let me start by saying that I admit to being slightly biased with the number of stars as this series is my current favorite of all the books I read. That said I thought Paloma was the best book in the series since Extremes (my personal favorite). This book was a good tie-in to the first book of the series, whereas the last three could be read as stand alones. I recommend re-reading the first before this one if you are a fan of the series. I agree with other reviewers that there was a lack of aliens in this one. However, I think that is made up for as character development is well explored in the novel and not just for our main guy Miles Flint. I found myself even sympathizing with a character I had previously disliked. Also, Miles struggle to come to terms with who Paloma really was and his idea of her made for a more exciting read than I expected. The beginning did have a odd pace, but by the end I was almost shaking with anticipation while reading the short, few page chapters that comprised the majority of the last 100 pages. A good read for both mystery and sci fi fans, but read other books in the series first.

Paloma is the fifth Retrieval Artist novel. In order, they are The Disappeared, Extremes, Consequences, Buried Deep and Paloma. Read them in order! This book in unique in the series because we have met or heard about all of the main characters. Miles comes back from a much needed vacation after the events in Buried Deep. He isn't in Armstrong long when he gets an odd and frantic call from Paloma, the woman who trained him to be a Retrieval Artist. In fact, Paloma laid down the moral code that Miles follows, and he bought his business from her. Miles runs to her side only to find out that she has been brutally murdered, probably long before he got her car. The police are already on the scene when he arrives, and Miles becomes a suspect. Suspicions rise even more when it is determined that Miles is Paloma's heir. The will is contested, and the prestigious and dirty law firm of Wagner, Stuart, and Xendor (remember them from increasingly intense brushes in the other books) becomes involved in both the will and the murder investigation. Paloma's death and the events that follow bring Miles Flint, the Wagner's, Ki Bowles, Noelle DeRicci, and Detective Nyquist into sharp contrast with one another and events. It closes a lot of the action and side plots we have brushed against in the other books. Also, we learn that although we knew Paloma was a mysterious and secretive woman, most of us only skimmed the surface when we were speculating what that was all about... Additionally, for those that don't like the humans being subject to alien law and punishment aspect of the books, there are more details about how that situation began that might clarify why the author uses it as the cornerstone. After all, if you spray paint cars in Singapore, you are going to get caned because that is the law there and you, no matter who you are, are subject to local law. What the early human-based corporations did was far, far worse than a little spray paint and all in the name of profit. I still love these books and eagerly await the next one.

When ex-cop Miles Flint left the Moon's police force to become a Retrieval Artist, it was the woman known only as Paloma who taught him the ropes of the profession, and then sold him her business when she retired. Having spent some time away from the moon, wrestling with his conscience over a case that turned ugly and thinking of retiring himself, Miles returns just in time to recieve her call for help -- but not in time to get to her apartment before she is brutally murdered. Since by definition all of a Retrieval Artist's clients have alien enemies, Miles thinks her death might have been because of one of her past cases, but the police aren't interested in his help, and in fact are seriously considering him for the role of "suspect." When he decides to investigate the murder, if only to protect himself, every answer he finds just seems to lead to more questions. Why did Paloma have not one but two space ships, and why has one of them been in quarantine for decades? What secret is hidden in the millions of computer files she willed to him, rather than the family that, until her death, he hadn't even known she had? And what was the "biochemical goo" at the scene of the murder that had the HazMat teams baffled? From the back cover: As a Retrieval Artist, Mile Flint helps the Disappeared, saving the lives of those oppressed under the Earth Alliance regime. He owes his livelihood, and his very sense of honor, to a woman known as Paloma. It was she who was responsible for setting him on this path -- and now she has been murdered. Summoned by Paloma's desperate call, Miles reaches her apartment too late. She is already dead, and a seemingly indifferent police force wants no part of Miles's offer of assistance. So he undertakes his own investigation and uncovers a link between Paloma's death and the Moon's largest law firm. The executives there are known to be ruthless -- and they have a secret they are clearly willing to kill to protect...