Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

Station Eternity (The Midsolar Murders, #1)

by Mur Lafferty

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes.

From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet…and markedly devoid of homicide.
 
But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board….

Reviewed by annieb123 on

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Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Station Eternity is the first Midsolar Murder SF mystery by Mur Lafferty. Released 4th Oct 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 464 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.

Over the years of reviewing and discussing crime fiction with other fans, it's been a perennial joke about how being an amateur sleuth from the reader's side is unproblematic, but from the actual sleuth's point-of-view, it would have to be tiresome (and absolutely *full* of run-ins with the official constabulary). Jessica Fletcher's and Ellery Queen's hundreds of solved mysteries would have to have their families and acquaintances begging for a card or letter instead of actual appearance at any function where people would be gathered, since statistically one (or more) of them would have to come a cropper in some violently unlikely fashion. 

This book is self aware enough to take that idea (people are dying everytime protagonist Mallory shows up) and run with it. Mallory seeks refuge/protection from the peripheral incidental death by hiding on a sentient space station where she's the only human around, and all is blissfully quiet... until the first shuttle from Earth shows up.

This is a very very well written and cleverly plotted and engineered book. The author is rightfully hailed by the public and her peers alike, and deserves every bit of hype. Some of the early bits of the book are more stately in the pacing department, but patient readers who allow the author room to develop the characters and setup are richly rewarded in the last 2/3rds of the book.

Four stars. Engaging, funny, and so well constructed. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes. 

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Reading updates

  • 5 February, 2023: Started reading
  • 5 February, 2023: Finished reading
  • 5 February, 2023: Reviewed