Our journey through Titanshade follows Detective Carter, a homicide cop with lots of luck - almost all of it bad. His superiors have gone to great lengths to keep him out of the press ever since the incident, but no glory means little to no gratitude and no perks, unless you can call the solitude of being a pariah to the point that no one wants to be your partner a perk.
Well, as the oil reserves keep dwindling, Titanshade's hopes, as well as everyone else's, in truth, hang on a big wind farm development being backed by an amphibious race known as Squibs. And with the recent unsolved - and very grizzly - murder of a Squib diplomat, negotiations are stalled, pushing back the wind farm development. The powers-that-be are putting all hands on deck and pushing to get the case wrapped up quickly, which means that even Carter will find himself, once again, with a partner.
Ajax is a Mollenkampi rookie cop. (You know - one speaking mouth, one eating mouth, armored head plates, mandibles... and green in more than one way.) His friends call him "Jax." Carter calls him "College." He's been assigned as Carter's partner. Or babysitter, depending on your point of view. They make an odd couple perhaps, but at least, as Carter says, "The kid's got fast hands." However, they'll have to share a squad car and Ajax likes disco, to Carter's chagrin.
They'll have to figure out how to make the partnership work quickly, however, as the case is heating up everything in Titanshade, with some very important people pushing to close the case and bent cops and crooked politicians looking to pin it on someone - anyone, despite any evidence or lack thereof, which threatens to wrongfully pin the murder on the poor and unfortunate bystanders, which just happens to include Talena, an activist working to improve the lives of prostitutes in the inner city... and whom Carter watches over, due to a promise he had made to her mother.
Before all is said and done, they'll not only have to deal with the rich politicians and diplomats and the destitute and homeless, but also an odd, isolationist religious commune, an oil tycoon, and even a mad scientist and his creations. In Titanshade, that's all in a day's work...
I loved the flavor of the writing and found the story to be intriguing and I highly enjoyed reading as the story unfolded and revealed new, unexpected twists and turns along the way. Dan Stout has a way of filling in odd, alien details of the world as he goes along, such that you can understand and appreciate the world without feeling like you're watching some nature documentary about that world. If you're into noir, fantasy or thrillers, definitely add Titanshade to your summer reading list.
