Peter F. Hamilton

Readable but disappointing for me. I was impressed with Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy and OK with the Void Trilogy. This book, second in the earlier Mandel trilogy, has none of the cosmic expanse of those later works. It is set in an intermediate future -- say 50 years on -- and takes place completely in England. For me this smaller scope hurts. Dubious science can be forgiven in the far future in an intergalactic conflict. It's another to see it in a cozy murder. Both the method of murder and how the detection makes a key discovery depend on nonsense technology that I would expect in a second-tier TV series. There is also a secondary plot involving a rich heiress and her computer-simulated grandfather that seems like an homage to Heinlein's worst elements.

Read if you want, but no need to seek it out.… (mere)