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Murder on the Alpha Centauri Express: New Edition
Thomas Wozinak is a Lower, one of tens of billions of humans who have been designated as unfit to live among the Highers of planet Earth. Now a planet reserved for the upper class of society. Thomas is one of the lucky Lowers, he has become a police detective and can live on the surface of the Earth, but, after a failed case against a high-ranking family, he finds himself sent on a meaningless babysitting job with an alien ambassador. His career is in tatters and his bitterness against the Highers is eating away at him.
The Alpha Centauri Express is Earth’s oldest False Time Drive ship, allowing it to instantly travel across the known galaxy while passengers experience a set amount of perceived time. Its expense and luxury is legendary. Thomas finds, that like the passengers he is about to travel with, the ship itself is built on reputation and deceptions. Thomas meets the Ambassador, a representative of the Galaxy’s most powerful and mysterious race, Ketteridge was once the head of an interplanetary homicide force. The two of them have an immediate bond, both outsiders looking in on a stratified and stagnant culture.
Their fellow passengers on the Express are a strange mix; two Higher women travelling alone, a powerful colonial politician with a suspicious past, a roving alien reporter on the trail of a con-artist, a rock superstar who was murdered and reanimated as a cyborg and his slimy agent. Also on-board is a half-alien assassin known for his violence. When he is found by a crewman in his staterooms bludgeoned to death, Thomas and Ketteridge take it upon themselves to solve the murder. Their investigation is complicated by the web of previous relationships between fellow passengers, including the preceding murder of Jos J. Jones, the galaxy’s most famous rockstar. They only have limited time to find the killer or killers before they arrive at Alpha Centauri and the killer(s) can walk away free, having committed the crime outside of any planetary jurisdiction.
Thomas and Ketteridge find plots within plots. They must unravel revenge, blackmail, greed, and a crime of passion.
The Alpha Centauri Express is Earth’s oldest False Time Drive ship, allowing it to instantly travel across the known galaxy while passengers experience a set amount of perceived time. Its expense and luxury is legendary. Thomas finds, that like the passengers he is about to travel with, the ship itself is built on reputation and deceptions. Thomas meets the Ambassador, a representative of the Galaxy’s most powerful and mysterious race, Ketteridge was once the head of an interplanetary homicide force. The two of them have an immediate bond, both outsiders looking in on a stratified and stagnant culture.
Their fellow passengers on the Express are a strange mix; two Higher women travelling alone, a powerful colonial politician with a suspicious past, a roving alien reporter on the trail of a con-artist, a rock superstar who was murdered and reanimated as a cyborg and his slimy agent. Also on-board is a half-alien assassin known for his violence. When he is found by a crewman in his staterooms bludgeoned to death, Thomas and Ketteridge take it upon themselves to solve the murder. Their investigation is complicated by the web of previous relationships between fellow passengers, including the preceding murder of Jos J. Jones, the galaxy’s most famous rockstar. They only have limited time to find the killer or killers before they arrive at Alpha Centauri and the killer(s) can walk away free, having committed the crime outside of any planetary jurisdiction.
Thomas and Ketteridge find plots within plots. They must unravel revenge, blackmail, greed, and a crime of passion.
275 pages, Paperback
Published April 16, 2023
About the author
Steve Downes
49 books227 followersSteve Downes is an Irish contemporary poet and novelist, currently living and working in Ireland. Educated in N.U.I. Maynooth, he holds a Degree in Classical History and a Masters in Cultural Anthropology.
Steve’s latest books are, Fyre & Stone (BLKDOG Publishing, 2021) & Fyre & Stone: Resurrection Men (BLKDOG Publishing, 2024)
Steve is a published poet since 1996, his poetry collections to-date are: A Human Veneer, A Landscape For Yourself and Dawn at Midnight (anthology).
Steve’s first novel was published in 2013, his novels to-date are: Cosmogonic Marbles, Temporal Tome, Gadzooks Armageddon and Botolf Tales (the Botolf Chronicles), Warworld: Shadows & Dominions (part 1), Murder on the Alpha Centauri Express and The Deaths of Guner Zoon.
Steve has also published three children’s Books: The Upstairs Cat Series (3 books).
Steve continues to write and publish work in many genres.
In 2017 & 2018 Steve exhibited from his collections of historical photographs, Lost Graveyards of Ireland (2017) and A Landscape For Yourself (2018).
Steve’s latest books are, Fyre & Stone (BLKDOG Publishing, 2021) & Fyre & Stone: Resurrection Men (BLKDOG Publishing, 2024)
Steve is a published poet since 1996, his poetry collections to-date are: A Human Veneer, A Landscape For Yourself and Dawn at Midnight (anthology).
Steve’s first novel was published in 2013, his novels to-date are: Cosmogonic Marbles, Temporal Tome, Gadzooks Armageddon and Botolf Tales (the Botolf Chronicles), Warworld: Shadows & Dominions (part 1), Murder on the Alpha Centauri Express and The Deaths of Guner Zoon.
Steve has also published three children’s Books: The Upstairs Cat Series (3 books).
Steve continues to write and publish work in many genres.
In 2017 & 2018 Steve exhibited from his collections of historical photographs, Lost Graveyards of Ireland (2017) and A Landscape For Yourself (2018).
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