Spider Play

Brill and Maxwell #2

by Lee Killough

In a bitter 2092 winter, the mystery of why someone would hijack a hearse in a snowstorm leads detectives Janna Brill and Mama Maxwell first to evidence of smuggling and then to a space station with secrets. Hundreds of miles from Earth, minus weapons or communication with Earth, they face a killer who could be the very person inviting them there


Review
This one is one of (Lee Killough’s) best novels. Like all of Killough's novels, the twists and turns in the plot will surprise you. I list her as one of my "must-read" authors among all SF writers.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

419 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1986

About the author

Lee Killough has been storytelling since the age of four or five, when she began making up her own bedtime stories. So when she discovered science fiction and mysteries about age eleven, she began writing her own science fiction and mysteries. Because her great fear was running out of these by reading everything her small hometown library had. It took her late husband Pat Killough, though, years later, to convince her to try selling her work. Her first published stories were science fiction and her short story, "Symphony For a Lost Traveler", earned a Hugo Award nomination in 1985.

She used to joke that she wrote SF because she dealt with non-humans every day...spending twenty-seven years as chief technologist in the Radiology Department at Kansas State University's Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital before retiring to write full-time.

Because she loves both SF and mysteries and hated choose between the two genres, her work combines them. Except for one fantasy, The Leopard’s Daughter, most of her novels are mysteries with SF or fantasy elements...with a preference for supernatural detectives: vampire, werewolves, even a ghost. She has set her procedurals in the future, on alien words, and in the country of dark fantasy. Her best known detective is vampire cop Garreth Mikaelian, of Blood Hunt, Bloodlinks, and Blood Games. Five of her novels and a novella are now available as e-books and she is editing more to turn into e-books.

Lee makes her home in Manhattan, Kansas, with her book-dealer husband Denny Riordan, a spunky terrier mix, and a house crammed with books.

Reviews

[Mary JL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the leos (law enforcement officers), Sgt Jenna Brill regrets she has Mahlon "Mama" Maxwell as a partner. Oh, Mama is congenial enough, but he keeps getting these brainbent theories. When Jenna calls him on the wierd ideas, he refers to her as "By the Book Brill".

Of course Jenna's by-the book attitude and Mama's flashes of intuition, make them a good crime solving team. What seems to be a simple hijacking of a hearse turns in to a mutilated corpse and a good suspicion that murder may have occured in the Lanour space platform.

Arriving, Jenna and Mama soon find that the colony security staff are very unhelpful. Away from their colleagues, in an unfamiliar space habitat, can Jeena and Mama find the answers in time....?

Of the three books in the Brill/Maxwell series (the other two are 'Doppelganger Gambit' and "Dragon's Teeth'), I enjoyed this one the most. There is a neat, ambigous twist at the end. I liked it as real life does not always end up solved neatly. The characters of the two main detectives--Jenna and Mama--are well written. Some amusing dialogue and a fairly interesting near-future setting (about 80 years from now). A light but competently written blend of SF and mystery. It should appeal to science-fiction or mystery fans, and especially appeal if you happen to like both genres.

(Edited on 10-26-12 to fix a few errors)

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been curious for a long time about Lee Killough's re-envisioning of her "Brill and Matthews" novels, which first came out about 40 years ago. I want to re-read the original SPIDER PLAY again before I comment on the changes (it's been about 40 years since I read it).

But I can say that, just as a story on its own, I enjoyed this book very much. I like the characters, and although I did figure out who the "bad guy" was a bit before the reveal, there were other suspenseful moments I didn't expect. On the merits of the story itself, I thought it well worth the effort--but it did take effort. There were ongoing technical difficulties that made this book literally hard to read.

Even after I bought a new Kindle (thinking the old one was the problem), the digital file kept glitching and fast-forwarding to unexpected places (a problem I also had with 2015 version of the first book in this series, THE DOPPELGÄNGER GAMBIT).

Since the digital file wasn't divided into chapters, it was annoying and time-consuming to try and figure out what "location" (between 1 and 6100-something) I'd been in, when the glitch sent me random numbers of pages elsewhere. Talk about throwing the reader out of the narrative! I usually had to re-read a bit to find exactly where I'd left off, and get back into the story.

This book was published by a small press, Books We Love, Ltd. I would have expected a much better job of formatting from purported professionals (I also hate the cover, but that's another whole issue), but I tried not to let my issues with the unprofessionalism of the publisher interfere with my evaluation of the really-quite-enjoyable story!

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine but I liked it a bit less than the first one. I was more involved before they went into space; I prefer seeing them on their home turf, I suppose.

[John Loyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a detective mystery in an SF setting. Crimes against persons detectives Janna Brill and Mahlon Maxwell (Mama) investigate the theft of a hearse and its contents, a construction worker killed in an accident at the Lanour space platform. They find out that Chenoweth's body was used for smuggling.

Just when they think the case is out of their hands, they are asked to go to Lanour and do more investigating. They are told by the security chief there to stay out of the way that she's got it under control and doesn't want any interference. Janna and Mama manage to get into some scrapes.

I didn't immediately pick up the initial setting was Topeka, Kansas. Oakland is a suburb or neighborhood, and California is a major street. The dialog from dispatch wasn't identified, took me a couple of times to figure out it was the radio and not someone at scene saying the lines. By the time the setting changed to the space platform, the reading was much smoother. Enjoyable book, more fun once it started flowing. It is a mystery novel, police detective type, as much as it is SF.

[L.E. Doggett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again I wanted to make this 3 and a half stars.

A good adventure with action and mysteries. A good read.

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1987 grade B-
2001 grade B-