What do you think?
Rate this book
David Silver #1
Alien Blues
1-6
Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
25 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Lynn Hightower
43 books86 followersLynn Hightower grew up in Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Kentucky, where she studied creative writing with Wendell Berry and earned a degree in Journalism. She also teaches novel writing in the Writer’s Program at UCLA. Survival jobs include writing television commercials, catering waitress, and bartender for one day.
Her books have been included in the New York Times List of Notable Books, the London Times Bestseller List, and the W.H. Smith Fresh Talent Awards. She has received the Shamus Award, and been nominated for the Kentucky Literary Award, the Kentucky Librarians First Choice Award, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Hightower’s books have been published in numerous foreign countries, including Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Israel and The Netherlands.
Hightower spends ridiculous amounts of time curled up reading, but also enjoys small sports cars and tame horses. She is married to The Frenchman, writes full time, shares an office with her Belgian Shepherd, Leo the Lion, plays bad but fierce tennis, loves to dance and is learning to Tango.
Hightower enjoys canoeing and is witty after two glasses of wine. She has studied French and Italian, but is only fluent in Southern.
Hightower is a Kentucky native, and lives in a small Victorian cottage with a writing parlor.
Her books have been included in the New York Times List of Notable Books, the London Times Bestseller List, and the W.H. Smith Fresh Talent Awards. She has received the Shamus Award, and been nominated for the Kentucky Literary Award, the Kentucky Librarians First Choice Award, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Hightower’s books have been published in numerous foreign countries, including Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Israel and The Netherlands.
Hightower spends ridiculous amounts of time curled up reading, but also enjoys small sports cars and tame horses. She is married to The Frenchman, writes full time, shares an office with her Belgian Shepherd, Leo the Lion, plays bad but fierce tennis, loves to dance and is learning to Tango.
Hightower enjoys canoeing and is witty after two glasses of wine. She has studied French and Italian, but is only fluent in Southern.
Hightower is a Kentucky native, and lives in a small Victorian cottage with a writing parlor.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 14, 2015
“What.” Mel grimaced. “Hell, yes, this is Homicide Task Force. Don’t you know who you’re calling? He grinned at David. “Naw, Silver ain’t here. This is Burnett.” p. 10
This novel begins like many crime novels. The story starts out with a victim escaping a serial killer and the protagonists trying to figure out how to capture the killer. If you read mysteries, this is not unusual. However, Hightower throws her readers and detectives a curve by including alien life forms in this mystery. The Elaki have come to earth and actually solved some of our problems. They are not usually concerned with deciphering criminal cases, but for some reason they are interested in this one.
I am glad I tried this story. I had listened to one of Hightower’s stories over seven years ago, but this is a different series. The aliens added several twists to the tale which kept me interested in a fairly average mystery.
Hightower has invented a future world with similarities to the place we live in now. So she could drop her readers into this new world without needing to explain everything that is different. This is not a cozy mystery, but it was fine. There was violence, but nothing that bothered me.
If you are a mystery reader and want some fun, light reading, you may want to try this book. If you like it, there are a few more stories about Silver, Burnett and the Elaki.
(After writing all this down, I went to Hightower’s webpage. It looks like this series was originally marketed as science fiction. Although there are aliens, I really thought of this as crime fiction. It shows you what preconceptions will do. The book I read earlier by Hightower was a mystery. The reprint of this book does not have a single alien on the cover. So I took the aliens as secondary to the crime fiction. Oh well, I still believe that mystery readers would enjoy this as well as those of us who read speculative fiction.)
This novel begins like many crime novels. The story starts out with a victim escaping a serial killer and the protagonists trying to figure out how to capture the killer. If you read mysteries, this is not unusual. However, Hightower throws her readers and detectives a curve by including alien life forms in this mystery. The Elaki have come to earth and actually solved some of our problems. They are not usually concerned with deciphering criminal cases, but for some reason they are interested in this one.
I am glad I tried this story. I had listened to one of Hightower’s stories over seven years ago, but this is a different series. The aliens added several twists to the tale which kept me interested in a fairly average mystery.
Hightower has invented a future world with similarities to the place we live in now. So she could drop her readers into this new world without needing to explain everything that is different. This is not a cozy mystery, but it was fine. There was violence, but nothing that bothered me.
If you are a mystery reader and want some fun, light reading, you may want to try this book. If you like it, there are a few more stories about Silver, Burnett and the Elaki.
(After writing all this down, I went to Hightower’s webpage. It looks like this series was originally marketed as science fiction. Although there are aliens, I really thought of this as crime fiction. It shows you what preconceptions will do. The book I read earlier by Hightower was a mystery. The reprint of this book does not have a single alien on the cover. So I took the aliens as secondary to the crime fiction. Oh well, I still believe that mystery readers would enjoy this as well as those of us who read speculative fiction.)
February 15, 2018
Abandoned this about halfway through. The writing is not bad, but I didn’t care for the story.
The setting is similar to that of the movie Alien Nation: slightly superior aliens have settled on Earth and are trying to blend into human society. I was hoping for a buddy cop story, where the human and alien detectives are forced to work together to solve a mystery and grudgingly gain respect for each other, but that’s not what this is. I was disappointed in the aliens, even though I had braced myself to believe that creatures who look like giant stingrays have no problems living in our atmosphere, eating our food and articulating human languages.
The human characters were slightly more interesting. At first I was intrigued by the detective’s family life - he has three small daughters and lives on a farm with his wife who is a badass manic depressive lab-raiding animal rights activist. I liked his brother-in-law, a smartass fellow cop. But the story went in a direction I didn’t like, and overall the setting was unsatisfying.
The setting is similar to that of the movie Alien Nation: slightly superior aliens have settled on Earth and are trying to blend into human society. I was hoping for a buddy cop story, where the human and alien detectives are forced to work together to solve a mystery and grudgingly gain respect for each other, but that’s not what this is. I was disappointed in the aliens, even though I had braced myself to believe that creatures who look like giant stingrays have no problems living in our atmosphere, eating our food and articulating human languages.
The human characters were slightly more interesting. At first I was intrigued by the detective’s family life - he has three small daughters and lives on a farm with his wife who is a badass manic depressive lab-raiding animal rights activist. I liked his brother-in-law, a smartass fellow cop. But the story went in a direction I didn’t like, and overall the setting was unsatisfying.
February 5, 2021
Alien Blues is basically a detective story set in a not too distant future where mostly benevolent aliens with technology only slightly ahead of our own have made contact with mankind. The aliens live amongst us and use their technology to try to help mankind with a multitude of medical/mental problems. Not all of the aliens have our best interest in mind, however. When the local Homicide Detectives are investigating a possible serial killer the aliens insert themselves in the investigation. Their purported purpose is to help solve the crimes and find the killer but it soon becomes apparent that there is more at play here than first thought. A good, quick read especially if you like detective themed novels.
September 20, 2025
A occasionally wild - but mostly boring - read.
August 15, 2021
Slušná četba do vlaku. Misty nesrozumitelný děj, snad je to prekladem, snad neumelosti autorky, postav až moc a ne vždy dosti specifickych, zvláště policisté jsou keden jako druhy.
January 3, 2020
While on the case of a psychopathic serial killer, detective David Silver and his partner Mel uncover that “Machete Man” is just the beginning of a larger and far more dangerous conspiracy. Can they uncover the haunting secrets of this puzzle, and if so, at what cost?
Oh, and there are aliens that smell like limes, apparently.
I feel like it was reasonable to expect some sort of campiness in Alien Blues.
**Trigger warning for rape, sadism, and derision of intersex folks/gender non-conforming folks**
I wasn’t twenty pages in before I was treated to tales of how Machete Man dismembers and then masturbates onto his victims.
Cooooool.
These depictions aren’t prolonged or overly detailed, but it’s the principle of the matter here. Nothing about the packaging of this book says “contains multiple sadists.”
About the same time, I was rolling my eyes about the needless sexualized violence of the villain, I struggled with an entirely different problem: the writing itself. At best I would describe it as stilted.
I’m too lazy to track down an exact passage, but read like such: “The ground was cracked. Through the cracked ground was a path. That path was made of paving bricks. The paving bricks were in a zig-zag pattern. […]”
Then, whenever the simple “the X was” sentences became too repetitious, they’d lop off the subject and the verb.
“There was a metal table. There was a pitcher of water on top. Glasses of lemonade. Plates with potato salad.”
Not only are these sentences so boring, but the information contained within them also isn’t valuable. The lemonade never matters again. I’m guessing those sentences were to showcase Detective David Silver’s attention to detail and analytical eye, but all it made me think was that he should focus. A woman was almost just hatcheted to death. The pattern of the path in the garden does not matter.
Speaking of David Silver, he’s generic and good-natured; impossible to hate but almost as impossible to love. He loves his daughters and his wife. He tries to be honest and upright and his only personality comes from being raised in a bad neighborhood by a seemingly abusive mother.
This mother doesn’t matter, except to give David Silver some meaning as a stand-alone character. The only thing that matters is the plot which, to be honest, at least initially feels formulaic; there are clear questions posed at regular intervals to keep you turning the pages even if you aren’t particularly invested in any specific part of the story.
It all bothered me so much, and yet …
Once, several years ago, there was a guy on my morning commute who always read a Lee Child book. He’d go through several a month, and after a few months, I grew curious. Armed with a little research about the best Lee Child novels, I grabbed Persuader, book #7 of the Jack Reacher series, and gave it a read.
It had needlessly sexualized violence, whole paragraphs of sentences like “The ground was cracked,” and a good-natured but bland protagonist constantly answering and unearthing perfectly bite-sized questions in such a perfect way that I read Persuader is short order despite not liking it at all.
Persuader has 61.5k ratings on Goodreads and a 4.1-star average.
Now let it be known that I think those people are wrong. I could go into more specific detail about why Persuader isn’t good, the most glaring being that the main character, Reacher, is supposedly this brilliant ex-military-police officer gone undercover and he misses the “twist” in the novel so hard I legitimately thought it was just a plot hole. I’m a 30-something middle-class white lady with no experience with anything even marginally sordid. If I can clock that the mob boss just did something really weird and hard to explain in, like, chapter 5, then the guy who was military police definitely should…
But still. If police procedurals have a certain style of writing, even if it’s not very good, who am I to judge an author for adhering to it?
With this in mind, I was prepared to give Alien Blues a pass. And then things started to fall apart.
While David Silver was tracking Machete Man and questions were being posed and answered in perfect time so that there were always two to three great easily summarized questions I wanted to know the answer to, I was happy to keep reading.
The hardest thing about writing a formulaic* plot-driven book, it seems, is that the second the plot loses you, there’s no good reason to keep reading.
And eventually, the plot lost me. Clear questions were replaced with a murkiness that was hard to be too curious about. We went from “What’s driving Machete Man?” to “What’s going on?” and that’s just not good enough.
This vagueness lasted until the end of the book. Like, the villain is made clear, but the specifics about their villainy is abstract and confusing. And, perhaps most critically, there’s never an ‘Ahha!’ moment, which I feel is critical for a detective, investigative type book.
I have other concerns: the world-building is inventive but lacks cohesion. Essentially, it felt like the author thought up a few neat ideas and then simply stuck them on top of the world as it was in 1992. This leads to a world where landlines are the only way to communicate, but automobiles have sophisticated AI that can report on holes in the windshield or issues with the exhaust.
Dialogue is poorly tagged. About 30% of the time I had no idea who was talking. I eventually just gave up re-reading to try to figure it out from context.
There’s definitely a “magical/wise black lady” who pops up in a role that makes no sense (How is a mob boss also, like, a super-nice lady who does nothing wrong?) and feels like she walked right out of a book on tropes.
Characters die for no good reason in ways that do nothing to affect the plot. Some of them I felt were for convenience; the narrative was easier without them there. Others I think were to tug on the heartstrings.
Oh, and, spoiler,
There is just so much that is not okay.
I did finish the book. This is in part because I was in so deep when shit started to fall apart that I knew curiosity would eat away at me if I didn’t finish Alien Blues.
Also, I loved the aliens.
What I had been hoping for in Alien Blues was a buddy-cop sort of novel, and after reading it I want that more than ever. The Elaki of Alien Blues, the giant stingray-looking guys, are not only the best part of the novel, they’re a great depiction of aliens, period.
First off, when they want to slur humans, they call them “hot dogs,” which is hilarious and brilliant. They love the old-school naming convention where you are named after what you do—a la Fletcher, Smith, Cooper, etc—so much that they give themselves names based on their interests/proficiencies. This leads to characters being referred to, in all seriousness, as “String” or “Grammar” or “Puzzle.”
They hate spicy food but flock to taco stands that serve up the blandest tacos imaginable while happily declaring it “authentic.”
And, perhaps my favorite, is the way they speak. It perfectly smacks of someone who speaks English as a second (or third, or fourth) language. My favorite line of the book is a very annoyed Elaki saying “Must you be interruptious?”
There are some buddy-cop-like moments in Alien Blues, and I savored each one I came across. Unfortunately, all the other shittiness of the novel aside, they were too few of them and they didn’t dig in deep enough. I would have devoured a book with David Silver paired with a new Elaki partner, watching them go from standoffish to trusting each other, nabbing the (not needlessly intersex) villain, and then, I don’t know, singing karaoke or something together in the epilogue.
Instead, I’m stuck with another book I can’t recommend.
*I realize 7-foot tall stingray aliens aren’t quite formulaic but work with me on this one.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
Oh, and there are aliens that smell like limes, apparently.
I feel like it was reasonable to expect some sort of campiness in Alien Blues.
**Trigger warning for rape, sadism, and derision of intersex folks/gender non-conforming folks**
I wasn’t twenty pages in before I was treated to tales of how Machete Man dismembers and then masturbates onto his victims.
Cooooool.
These depictions aren’t prolonged or overly detailed, but it’s the principle of the matter here. Nothing about the packaging of this book says “contains multiple sadists.”
About the same time, I was rolling my eyes about the needless sexualized violence of the villain, I struggled with an entirely different problem: the writing itself. At best I would describe it as stilted.
I’m too lazy to track down an exact passage, but read like such: “The ground was cracked. Through the cracked ground was a path. That path was made of paving bricks. The paving bricks were in a zig-zag pattern. […]”
Then, whenever the simple “the X was” sentences became too repetitious, they’d lop off the subject and the verb.
“There was a metal table. There was a pitcher of water on top. Glasses of lemonade. Plates with potato salad.”
Not only are these sentences so boring, but the information contained within them also isn’t valuable. The lemonade never matters again. I’m guessing those sentences were to showcase Detective David Silver’s attention to detail and analytical eye, but all it made me think was that he should focus. A woman was almost just hatcheted to death. The pattern of the path in the garden does not matter.
Speaking of David Silver, he’s generic and good-natured; impossible to hate but almost as impossible to love. He loves his daughters and his wife. He tries to be honest and upright and his only personality comes from being raised in a bad neighborhood by a seemingly abusive mother.
This mother doesn’t matter, except to give David Silver some meaning as a stand-alone character. The only thing that matters is the plot which, to be honest, at least initially feels formulaic; there are clear questions posed at regular intervals to keep you turning the pages even if you aren’t particularly invested in any specific part of the story.
It all bothered me so much, and yet …
Once, several years ago, there was a guy on my morning commute who always read a Lee Child book. He’d go through several a month, and after a few months, I grew curious. Armed with a little research about the best Lee Child novels, I grabbed Persuader, book #7 of the Jack Reacher series, and gave it a read.
It had needlessly sexualized violence, whole paragraphs of sentences like “The ground was cracked,” and a good-natured but bland protagonist constantly answering and unearthing perfectly bite-sized questions in such a perfect way that I read Persuader is short order despite not liking it at all.
Persuader has 61.5k ratings on Goodreads and a 4.1-star average.
Now let it be known that I think those people are wrong. I could go into more specific detail about why Persuader isn’t good, the most glaring being that the main character, Reacher, is supposedly this brilliant ex-military-police officer gone undercover and he misses the “twist” in the novel so hard I legitimately thought it was just a plot hole. I’m a 30-something middle-class white lady with no experience with anything even marginally sordid. If I can clock that the mob boss just did something really weird and hard to explain in, like, chapter 5, then the guy who was military police definitely should…
But still. If police procedurals have a certain style of writing, even if it’s not very good, who am I to judge an author for adhering to it?
With this in mind, I was prepared to give Alien Blues a pass. And then things started to fall apart.
While David Silver was tracking Machete Man and questions were being posed and answered in perfect time so that there were always two to three great easily summarized questions I wanted to know the answer to, I was happy to keep reading.
The hardest thing about writing a formulaic* plot-driven book, it seems, is that the second the plot loses you, there’s no good reason to keep reading.
And eventually, the plot lost me. Clear questions were replaced with a murkiness that was hard to be too curious about. We went from “What’s driving Machete Man?” to “What’s going on?” and that’s just not good enough.
This vagueness lasted until the end of the book. Like, the villain is made clear, but the specifics about their villainy is abstract and confusing. And, perhaps most critically, there’s never an ‘Ahha!’ moment, which I feel is critical for a detective, investigative type book.
I have other concerns: the world-building is inventive but lacks cohesion. Essentially, it felt like the author thought up a few neat ideas and then simply stuck them on top of the world as it was in 1992. This leads to a world where landlines are the only way to communicate, but automobiles have sophisticated AI that can report on holes in the windshield or issues with the exhaust.
Dialogue is poorly tagged. About 30% of the time I had no idea who was talking. I eventually just gave up re-reading to try to figure it out from context.
There’s definitely a “magical/wise black lady” who pops up in a role that makes no sense (How is a mob boss also, like, a super-nice lady who does nothing wrong?) and feels like she walked right out of a book on tropes.
Characters die for no good reason in ways that do nothing to affect the plot. Some of them I felt were for convenience; the narrative was easier without them there. Others I think were to tug on the heartstrings.
Oh, and, spoiler,
There is just so much that is not okay.
I did finish the book. This is in part because I was in so deep when shit started to fall apart that I knew curiosity would eat away at me if I didn’t finish Alien Blues.
Also, I loved the aliens.
What I had been hoping for in Alien Blues was a buddy-cop sort of novel, and after reading it I want that more than ever. The Elaki of Alien Blues, the giant stingray-looking guys, are not only the best part of the novel, they’re a great depiction of aliens, period.
First off, when they want to slur humans, they call them “hot dogs,” which is hilarious and brilliant. They love the old-school naming convention where you are named after what you do—a la Fletcher, Smith, Cooper, etc—so much that they give themselves names based on their interests/proficiencies. This leads to characters being referred to, in all seriousness, as “String” or “Grammar” or “Puzzle.”
They hate spicy food but flock to taco stands that serve up the blandest tacos imaginable while happily declaring it “authentic.”
And, perhaps my favorite, is the way they speak. It perfectly smacks of someone who speaks English as a second (or third, or fourth) language. My favorite line of the book is a very annoyed Elaki saying “Must you be interruptious?”
There are some buddy-cop-like moments in Alien Blues, and I savored each one I came across. Unfortunately, all the other shittiness of the novel aside, they were too few of them and they didn’t dig in deep enough. I would have devoured a book with David Silver paired with a new Elaki partner, watching them go from standoffish to trusting each other, nabbing the (not needlessly intersex) villain, and then, I don’t know, singing karaoke or something together in the epilogue.
Instead, I’m stuck with another book I can’t recommend.
*I realize 7-foot tall stingray aliens aren’t quite formulaic but work with me on this one.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
April 17, 2018
I was hoping for a buddy/cop type story with an alien as the buddy to the cop. That's not quite what happened. The alien is called String, and he pushed himself into the investigation of a serial killer - something the alien Elaki have never done before. While the Elaki have helped humanity in many areas, particularly medicine, they've stayed away from law enforcement.
With all that potential, the story should have been bursting with fun action and world building. Instead, the story is more of a police procedural with two humans, Silver and his long time partner Mel, with String mostly in the background.
The pacing doesn't work. I feel like the writer was trying to weave too many elements together, and couldn't nail down any of them. The investigation wrapped up at the end, but it took a lot longer than it needed to. The rest of the story just seemed to unravel.
What I did like was the family. Silver's wife, Rose, the kids, Mel etc. Characterization was very well done. I loved Rose! And Mel was so snarky - loved his sense of humor. I even liked String. Funny enough, I even liked the animals! Dead Meat and Alex! LOL
I enjoyed it well enough. I'll probably read the next book in the series. I'd really like to know more about the Elaki.
With all that potential, the story should have been bursting with fun action and world building. Instead, the story is more of a police procedural with two humans, Silver and his long time partner Mel, with String mostly in the background.
The pacing doesn't work. I feel like the writer was trying to weave too many elements together, and couldn't nail down any of them. The investigation wrapped up at the end, but it took a lot longer than it needed to. The rest of the story just seemed to unravel.
What I did like was the family. Silver's wife, Rose, the kids, Mel etc. Characterization was very well done. I loved Rose! And Mel was so snarky - loved his sense of humor. I even liked String. Funny enough, I even liked the animals! Dead Meat and Alex! LOL
I enjoyed it well enough. I'll probably read the next book in the series. I'd really like to know more about the Elaki.
November 18, 2025
I LOVE SCIENCE FICTION
At first I thought this was just like Alien Nation. (Visitors who were engineered to be perfect slaves: until they escaped.)
This is a crime novel more than a science fiction novel. Are the Elaki going to help mankind or plan its destruction?
Look for drugs, kidnapping, murder.
In Alien Nation there was friendship and even interspecies love. Will the Elaki develop such emotions?
At first I thought this was just like Alien Nation. (Visitors who were engineered to be perfect slaves: until they escaped.)
This is a crime novel more than a science fiction novel. Are the Elaki going to help mankind or plan its destruction?
Look for drugs, kidnapping, murder.
In Alien Nation there was friendship and even interspecies love. Will the Elaki develop such emotions?
June 12, 2017
A pleasent surprise
I was expecting, from the summary, something like Alien Nation and a buddy flic. However, I went with the comments by other authors and am glad I did. Very character driven, interesting aliens, fast paced, and compkex people tgat weren't explained to death, making me interested in the sequels. I recommend.
I was expecting, from the summary, something like Alien Nation and a buddy flic. However, I went with the comments by other authors and am glad I did. Very character driven, interesting aliens, fast paced, and compkex people tgat weren't explained to death, making me interested in the sequels. I recommend.
May 14, 2020
Thoroughly enjoyable. Can’t believe it was written in 1992. Her idea of a near future is still possible. I like police procedural novels but add a cyberpunk flavor and truly alien aliens ‘who just want to understand and help’ and I’m all in. Good plot, well- fleshed minor characters. I didn’t expect to like a book in this genre this old, but I was wrong, its not old at all
January 20, 2018
Found this one in Emily's room. FIrst part was OK, but then story fell apart. It sucked, actually.
But the first part read like a police procedural with a cop and an alien partner. The alien was knd of funny.
Do you remember this one. Looks like a used book. Do you mind if recycle it?
Dad
But the first part read like a police procedural with a cop and an alien partner. The alien was knd of funny.
Do you remember this one. Looks like a used book. Do you mind if recycle it?
Dad
May 21, 2023
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this was not what I expected. It was a pretty good detective story though. It held my interest, and the characters were really developed. I think I’d like to read the rest of the series!
June 26, 2017
It's a hoot but deals with some serious issues, too.
January 20, 2018
This wasn't bad, but it didn't captivate me. There's potential in the setting and the family dynamics, but I wasn't interested in where the story was going, nor did I have a lot of fun reading it.
December 16, 2015
Alien Blues, the first in the David Silver series, was originally written in the 90’s, when I was busy returning to school, having my fourth child and raising the first three. I mention this only because I am dumbfounded that I missed this amazing series the first time around, and that’s the only possible reason; I was too busy trying to find a few minutes in which to sleep back then. Thank goodness Open Road Integrated Media has re-published it digitally. After reading and being really impressed by Flashpoint, another of Hightower’s terrific novels, I searched Net Galley for anything else she had written that was available to read and review, and I scored this little treasure. It’s a brave, bold genre cross of detective fiction and science fiction, and if I can read the others in the series, you had best believe I will.
First, of course, we have a murderer. Machete Man, as he is known, enjoys hacking his victims and their belongings into portable pieces. A nice touch is the would-be victim that gets away and can describe him. He hacks up all her stuff, and we know that if she hadn’t been as quick as she was, she would have been among the sliced and diced items in her bedroom. And I find the scene that occurs later between David’s wife Rose and Machete Man spectacular.
Into the mix we have the murder of an Elaki. Elaki are another species, but to a certain extent they work and interact with humans. They shimmer; they walk on fringe; they have flippers instead of hands. Roof tops are terribly dangerous, because they are slender and lightweight, and can easily blow away in a breeze. They are shorter than humans and because they have no legs, they must fold themselves to ride in an automobile made for humans. Their own are specially adapted. But we learn all these tidbits as we go along. Hightower doesn’t waste a lot of time describing them, but makes everything we learn part of the action. And so String, an Elaki that has never fit in well with his own folk, volunteers to aid in the investigation; some suspect his motives are other than what he says.
Lurking in the background is David’s traumatic past. He grew up in a ghetto, the tunnels underground known as Little Saigo. The tunnels were invented originally to house the wealthiest members of society from Earth’s degraded environment; imagine a carefully controlled housing development where there is no fear of skin cancer or other environmental hazards. But humans tend to crave the sun, and when the rich didn’t want to buy in, the project was never completed. Squatters populated the many half-completed nooks and crannies in the enormous subterranean catacombs, and eventually an implant similar to a microchip was developed so that those that lived there could identify one another, achieving a measure of safety from those that came to pillage and wreak chaos among the vulnerable.
David has not lived in Little Saigo for a long time; he has a modest but comfortable home, a wife, and darling daughters. But ultimately, he is forced to return to Little Saigo, home of his worst nightmares, in order to solve the crime.
It’s riveting.
Hightower is brilliant. The Elaki are the most memorable nonhuman characters in literature since Spock, and her female characters defy all possible stereotypes. Her pacing, character development, and capacity to develop setting that we can nearly see and breathe is outstanding. She has won the Shamus and her work has been included in the New York Times Most Notable Books list. She’s been published on four continents, and thanks to Open Road Integrated Media, those of us that missed her the first time around can now read her work digitally. And it’s available for sale now.
Highly recommended!
First, of course, we have a murderer. Machete Man, as he is known, enjoys hacking his victims and their belongings into portable pieces. A nice touch is the would-be victim that gets away and can describe him. He hacks up all her stuff, and we know that if she hadn’t been as quick as she was, she would have been among the sliced and diced items in her bedroom. And I find the scene that occurs later between David’s wife Rose and Machete Man spectacular.
Into the mix we have the murder of an Elaki. Elaki are another species, but to a certain extent they work and interact with humans. They shimmer; they walk on fringe; they have flippers instead of hands. Roof tops are terribly dangerous, because they are slender and lightweight, and can easily blow away in a breeze. They are shorter than humans and because they have no legs, they must fold themselves to ride in an automobile made for humans. Their own are specially adapted. But we learn all these tidbits as we go along. Hightower doesn’t waste a lot of time describing them, but makes everything we learn part of the action. And so String, an Elaki that has never fit in well with his own folk, volunteers to aid in the investigation; some suspect his motives are other than what he says.
Lurking in the background is David’s traumatic past. He grew up in a ghetto, the tunnels underground known as Little Saigo. The tunnels were invented originally to house the wealthiest members of society from Earth’s degraded environment; imagine a carefully controlled housing development where there is no fear of skin cancer or other environmental hazards. But humans tend to crave the sun, and when the rich didn’t want to buy in, the project was never completed. Squatters populated the many half-completed nooks and crannies in the enormous subterranean catacombs, and eventually an implant similar to a microchip was developed so that those that lived there could identify one another, achieving a measure of safety from those that came to pillage and wreak chaos among the vulnerable.
David has not lived in Little Saigo for a long time; he has a modest but comfortable home, a wife, and darling daughters. But ultimately, he is forced to return to Little Saigo, home of his worst nightmares, in order to solve the crime.
It’s riveting.
Hightower is brilliant. The Elaki are the most memorable nonhuman characters in literature since Spock, and her female characters defy all possible stereotypes. Her pacing, character development, and capacity to develop setting that we can nearly see and breathe is outstanding. She has won the Shamus and her work has been included in the New York Times Most Notable Books list. She’s been published on four continents, and thanks to Open Road Integrated Media, those of us that missed her the first time around can now read her work digitally. And it’s available for sale now.
Highly recommended!
September 30, 2015
David Silver is a homicide cop on a future Earth. He's also a househusband, caring for his home and daughters while his wife Rose is off tending to the semi-clandestine activities of an animal rights group with which she's affiliated. David is currently hunting a serial killer dubbed "Machete Man" because of the brutality with which he kills his victims, When one of the victims escapes, David and his partner Mel, who is also his brother-in-law, are unknowingly set on a path sending them into mortal danger and a clash with a conspiracy currently unknown to anyone. Adding to the mix of characters in the local precinct, some clean, some dirty, Mel and David get a third partner, an Elaki named String. The Elaki are aliens, settling among humans. They are amorphous, highly intelligent, tend to take things literally, have a vestige of a sense of humor, and love tacos. String is a pretty good detective, accepting Mel's barely disguised gibes because he doesn't realize they are insults, but occasionally he does have a salient point to make.
David's hunt for the killer takes him back to the place where he grew up, the worst part of town, the place where it all comes to a head and he learns secrets about the Elaki, the killer, and even his own wife...and his life will be changed forever, especially after he solves the crime.
This is an exciting novel in which the sci-fi aspects of the story meshes well with the police procedurals but don't overwhelm them. David's inner conflicts about the danger his wife places herself in, his slight jealousy over her partner, the animal-loving Haas, his love for his daughters as well as his occasional exchanges with his brother-in-law make him into a very three-dimensional character. String and the other Elaki encounters are also given personalities which are, if not likable, at least interesting. When he is nearly killed and insists on continuing his investigations in spite of blatant warnings to back off, the bravery he fears he's lacking shines through. Though there are no overt clashes, the enmities between aliens and Earthlings, while not necessarily at the hatred level , are at least prejudicial, as evidenced by Mel's continual jabs at String, added more tension to the mix. Needless to say, occasionally Stringy gives as good as he gets and by the closing of the case, Mel's attitude toward him has changed.
It's an easy read but not a simplistic one...and definitely an enjoyable narrative.
In the villain, Ms Hightower has created one of the most frightening and evil men ever encountered in fiction. He's oily, devious, cruel, and enjoys the fear and pain he instills in and perpetrates upon his victims. This is a character who revels in disaster and truly deserves whatever happens to him. One might wish he could be brought back for future entries in this series to again bedevil Detective Silver who has a right to a vendetta against him.
As I read this novel, I found myself hoping it was the first in a series. By the time I finished, I was glad to learn it was. I will be looking forward to reading the rest.
David's hunt for the killer takes him back to the place where he grew up, the worst part of town, the place where it all comes to a head and he learns secrets about the Elaki, the killer, and even his own wife...and his life will be changed forever, especially after he solves the crime.
This is an exciting novel in which the sci-fi aspects of the story meshes well with the police procedurals but don't overwhelm them. David's inner conflicts about the danger his wife places herself in, his slight jealousy over her partner, the animal-loving Haas, his love for his daughters as well as his occasional exchanges with his brother-in-law make him into a very three-dimensional character. String and the other Elaki encounters are also given personalities which are, if not likable, at least interesting. When he is nearly killed and insists on continuing his investigations in spite of blatant warnings to back off, the bravery he fears he's lacking shines through. Though there are no overt clashes, the enmities between aliens and Earthlings, while not necessarily at the hatred level , are at least prejudicial, as evidenced by Mel's continual jabs at String, added more tension to the mix. Needless to say, occasionally Stringy gives as good as he gets and by the closing of the case, Mel's attitude toward him has changed.
It's an easy read but not a simplistic one...and definitely an enjoyable narrative.
In the villain, Ms Hightower has created one of the most frightening and evil men ever encountered in fiction. He's oily, devious, cruel, and enjoys the fear and pain he instills in and perpetrates upon his victims. This is a character who revels in disaster and truly deserves whatever happens to him. One might wish he could be brought back for future entries in this series to again bedevil Detective Silver who has a right to a vendetta against him.
As I read this novel, I found myself hoping it was the first in a series. By the time I finished, I was glad to learn it was. I will be looking forward to reading the rest.
August 6, 2014
I didn't pick this up at a used book sale because of the obvious comparison to the movie Alien Nation (not the television show of which I saw all of one episode-I think). The reason I bought the book was the pieces I read about the relationship between homicide detective David Silver and his wife Rose.
Earth cops in 2040 end up having to work with an Elaki (alien) cop on a case that begins as a serial murder investigation and much in the manner of Raymond Chandler or the movie Chinatown ends up becoming much more. While the book isn't as well written as Chandler, or as good as Chinatown, it is a good solid police procedural. Hightower, and I think this is the sign of the times (The book was written in 1992), avoids large exposition dumps. Today, the book probably would have been another 150-250 pages long with large exposition dumps. But, the book would have benefitted from additional world building. We do get an explanations in how Little Saigo came about. It would have been nice to know where Saigo is (best guess is the Midwest) and why the Elaki came to Earth.
Also, I would have liked more about the Rose/David relationship. As a reader we get it that Rose is damaged from her time as a DEA agent, and that she apparently works as a mercenary for extreme animal rights groups. Seeing things through David's eyes we understand that he adores his three daughters and loves his wife. But, there is no escaping that this marriage is headed towards a train wreck.
All of that is in the background. The core of the story begins with the serial killer case, and then follows murders, and what follows is the formation of what promises to be a very dangerous drug cartel. Santanna is a good villain (when he finally meet it).
Earth cops in 2040 end up having to work with an Elaki (alien) cop on a case that begins as a serial murder investigation and much in the manner of Raymond Chandler or the movie Chinatown ends up becoming much more. While the book isn't as well written as Chandler, or as good as Chinatown, it is a good solid police procedural. Hightower, and I think this is the sign of the times (The book was written in 1992), avoids large exposition dumps. Today, the book probably would have been another 150-250 pages long with large exposition dumps. But, the book would have benefitted from additional world building. We do get an explanations in how Little Saigo came about. It would have been nice to know where Saigo is (best guess is the Midwest) and why the Elaki came to Earth.
Also, I would have liked more about the Rose/David relationship. As a reader we get it that Rose is damaged from her time as a DEA agent, and that she apparently works as a mercenary for extreme animal rights groups. Seeing things through David's eyes we understand that he adores his three daughters and loves his wife. But, there is no escaping that this marriage is headed towards a train wreck.
All of that is in the background. The core of the story begins with the serial killer case, and then follows murders, and what follows is the formation of what promises to be a very dangerous drug cartel. Santanna is a good villain (when he finally meet it).
March 30, 2015
I agree with previous reviewers assessments that Alien Blues is like Alien Nation. But only to a small extent. The plot was a typical "catch the murderer by cooperating and combining forces" feel. I too was intrgued with the dectective/wife intractions. But I wanted more depth in all the characters. Detect.David seems a bit weak minded with his martial relations.
Do you remember the movie Demolition Man? Everyone spoke in stilted, formal way, sometimes third person? This is how the aliens spoke., it was awkward and didn't help the flow.
Although, we are in the future, we still have serious have and have not issues. This book is hard to find. I managed to find it in a used bookstore. I am putting the sequels on my TBR list, but am not going to knock myself out looking.
Do you remember the movie Demolition Man? Everyone spoke in stilted, formal way, sometimes third person? This is how the aliens spoke., it was awkward and didn't help the flow.
Although, we are in the future, we still have serious have and have not issues. This book is hard to find. I managed to find it in a used bookstore. I am putting the sequels on my TBR list, but am not going to knock myself out looking.
June 10, 2011
I absolutely LOVED this series about an alien/human detrective duo. I thought the universe and aliens original, believeable, and the mystery tightly plotted and compelling. I read the whole series and am even quoted as a reviwer in one of the later volumes. I wish she would write more of these some day...
July 16, 2014
David Silver is a detective and he has to catch a serial killer. He has to work together with an alien, an Elaki, who looks like a seven-foot stingray and smells like fresh limes.
It is an exciting mixture of cops and aliens, a little like Alien Nation.
It was fun to read, like watching and episode of T.J. Hooker or something similar.
It is an exciting mixture of cops and aliens, a little like Alien Nation.
It was fun to read, like watching and episode of T.J. Hooker or something similar.
Read
August 25, 2015Did not read this one ... no review
August 26, 2019
Nothing to write home about?
May 3, 2017
Yuck.... no story
Read
July 11, 2017Giving up on this one... It is definitely not Silence of the Lambs meets Alien Nation. Way too tedious and boring. I keep waiting for it to go somewhere and it doesn't.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews