When Trouble Beckons

Mathew Swain #2

by Mike McQuay

The 21st century's toughest private eye in a future that's running down like a dime-store watch. Where the line between rich and poor is a DMZ and they clean the streets with meat wagons. If your not tough in a world like that, you're dead.

Genres: Science Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1981

About the author

Michael Dennis McQuay was an American science fiction writer. He wrote for several different series. His work in that field includes Mathew Swain, Ramon and Morgan, The Executioner, and SuperBolan. The Book of Justice series he wrote as Jack Arnett. He also wrote the second of the Isaac Asimov's Robot City novels. His non-series novel Memories was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award for 1987.

McQuay taught creative writing at the University of Central Oklahoma for more than ten years, and died of a heart attack at the age of 45 in 1995.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

McQuay's Mathew Swain novels combine a hard-boiled PI with a future, dystopian Earth and he just lets it rip. Swain puts the hard in hard-boiled and McQuay's lively prose and evocative phrasings ('we were quivering like a fat man on a jackhammer') make for delightful reading. When Trouble Beckons starts with Swain getting a call from a 'rich girl' buddy of his who recently went back to her orbital satellite; something is clearly hinky with her, but Swain play along and heads to orbit. Besides someone really not wanting Swain to be in space, when he finally gets there the 'rich-girl' is in some sort of terror coma. WTF is going on? Well, Swain aims to get to the bottom of it, what ever it takes!

These books are a blast and were the first novels of McQuay's I read back in the day. The grim portrait of a near future Earth resonates, as the haves have, and the have nots have nothing, and there is little in between. I also like how ruthless those in power are. "... at that moment I knew I was looking at absolute business in the purest sense-- cold and calculating and without morality of any kind."

The actual mystery here helps to keep the pages turning, but for me, the atmosphere and imagination of McQuay really take the prize. Super cover art as well. 4.5 hard-boiled stars!

[Angus McKeogh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feel crazy stupid saying this but I love this sci-fi noir mystery series. The story was great. Set on the moon and again (as with a lot of other classic sci-fi where the material and story seem dated for the time) not a shred of dated material. Part of the reason McQuay pulls this off is because he never puts some unrealistic date on the time in the book. Also his “futuristic” devices are believable and haven’t been either erroneously forecast or surpassed in the interim since the book was written. And then there’s the perfect mix of noir action and heart-tugging emotion. Two in the series thus far and ten stars total.

[A.A. Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

An proto cyber-punk masterpiece! A perfect example of how to combine sci-fi with another genre.

[Gene Steinbacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read and I would recommend it to any fan of vintage sci-fi. I have to admit that the ending was not fulfilling which is why I did not give it a higher rating.

[Tomrory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great second entry in the series. Best to read these in order as certain references to the overall enviroment of the time in which these take place are more fully explained in the first novel. This one moves along at a quick pace and seems to me to have a more cohesive plot structure than the first entry. Again certain characters are here that were in the first novel, so read the initial book first and this one will breeze along. Great fun and insightful perspective on what our society could turn into in the late 21st century. Bear in mind these novels were written back in the early 1980's.

[Beauregard Shagnasty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mathew Swain, smells trouble on a so-called "perfect" lunar colony and finds plenty of it in this second in the series by Mike McQuay. These old pulp paperbacks from the early eighties are a lot of fun and they all feature great artwork on the covers.

[Jennifer Connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite fun, but I don't think I liked it as much as Hot Time in Old Town. For some reason I kept getting distracted and some of the characters were getting mixed up in my head.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Mike McQuay's writing, especially this fun, edgy series. They should bring his books back into print.