Chaos Terminal: The Midsolar Murders - Book 2 starts off with a new shuttle of humans coming to the station for research purposes. Given that most of the humans from the previous shuttle ended up dead, the few humans on Station Eternity are a bit nervous. Well, Xan and Adrian are. For some reason, Mallory doesn't feel her normal sense of unease that comes when she is near people.
When Mallory learns just who has come to visit, she realizes that the coincidences surrounding this trip should be setting off major alarm bells in her unusual murder sense, but it isn't. And when a murder happens and she isn't even near it, she knows something must be wrong with the Blue Sundry she is connected to.
So who exactly has made the long trek to Station Eternity? It's just a small UNC-based research group hoping to get some time with the aliens of the station. Among them though is Amy Valor, Mallory's childhood friend. Also on the team is Parker, Amy's twin and Mallory's childhood crush. Their older brother, Reggie and his husband, Max, are also part of the research group. Oddly enough, UNC also sent their basketball coach, Oscar Daye (who also runs a celebrity gossip website). While the unexpected arrival of Amy, Parker and Reggie have made Mallory take a beat, the fact that SBI Agent Donald Drughn is also on the trip is even more unexpected.
According to Drughn, he has some long overdue PTO built up and decided to take this journey as a vacation. He had become friends with Amy when the two met at a spousal grief support group and when he heard about the UNC research trip, he found a way to tag along. He swears that, despite the many encounters Mallory and Drughn had while she was on Earth and solving murders under his nose, Drughn didn't even know Mallory was on Eternity, much less was he hoping to run into her.
Had Mallory been on her game, the sheer number of connected people suddenly showing up on Eternity would have made her on edge. The fact that a murder happens shouldn't have surprised her, and the fact that it did means not only does she have to help solve a murder, but she needs to find out what has happened to her connection to the Sundry, because clearly something is off.
Just to add to the confusion, her feelings towards Parker are complicated. The two were strongly attracted to each other growing up, but Amy put pressure on them to never date. After high school, Mallory grew apart from the Valors and for some reason, forgot all about Parker. Not Amy, not Reggie, but Parker. Until Mallory saw Parker on Eternity, she had no memory of Amy even having a twin. Something really unusual is going on around here, and that's saying something around Mallory.
Chaos Terminal puts Mallory in a series of tough situations. While trying to unravel a murder without her strange abilities, she has to suspect everyone around her, including her oldest friends. She has to figure out exactly what is going on with Parker, and, to make matters worse, it seems that Eternity is misbehaving. Not only is it traveling in an unexpected direction, but many of its systems are having problems. Mallory is going to have to rely on all of her skills if she is going to get to the bottom of this before the body count includes those she cares about the most.
Like Station Eternity before it, Chaos Terminal: The Midsolar Murders - Book 2 is a great read that just expands on the groundwork set in the previous book. Like any good murder mystery series, the characters are the core of this story and I continue to enjoy how Lafferty has given an in-universe explanation for the "Mystery Magnet" trope. Even with a reason for such a characteristic, it's clear by the end of this second book that we've only scratched the surface of the Sundry and the effect they have on their symbiotes.
If you are looking for a casual crime series with a sci-fi setting, then look no further than Midsolar Murders. It's only two books so far, but it is shaping up to be a lot of fun.
