I enjoyed how well this book kind of filtered its reality for the reader and was able to appear to be one thing while simultaneously being another. It's as classic a hard-boiled detective story as there's ever been, so it feels comfortable and familiar, but it's set in a sci-fi world that makes the progression of the plot extra interesting as you're exposed to new aspects of this strange world/society. It also--despite being about murder, corruption, and other awful things--often is quite funny and almost light-hearted, right up till and through the very end.

The transition from part one to part two startled me, and I thought it an overly clever way to advance the plot and the characters toward resolution. And it freed Metcalf to catapult toward the climax while putting a new twist on the tried and true theme: there's no time or place for someone who values truth and justice.

The book is short and fraught with tragedy and laughs. I'm certainly interested in reading more by this author.