4 minute read
THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY by Steven Kotler
or suicide. So Judith, struck by the Faith medallion adorning Stefan’s body, decides to investigate on her own—or rather, with the help of Becks Starling, wife of the vicar of All Saints Church, and dogwalker Suzie Harris. Briefly discouraged when the obvious suspect, auction house owner Elliot Howard, with whom Stefan had publicly quarreled, proves to have an ironclad alibi, they redouble their efforts when cabdriver Iqbal Kassam is found shot to death in his home wearing a Hope medallion. Now even Malik is persuaded that the two men have been killed by someone who’s presumably targeting a third victim, and over the objections of her own staff, she deputizes the amateur sleuths to work with her. Since Andy Bishop, the solicitor who seems to have robbed Iqbal of a hefty legacy from the late Ezra Harrington, also produces an alibi for his murder, the four women have their work cut out for them. Are the deaths linked by a common school background, a fondness for rowing, or a Mark Rothko painting Elliot sold to Stefan more than 30 years ago?
Lightweight but no-nonsense and genuinely brainy, like Anthony Horowitz without all the meta.
DEAD LUCKY
Wilson, Glenis Severn House (224 pp.) $28.99 | May 3, 2022 978-1-44830-681-7
A team of horse dopers runs afoul of Harry Radcliffe. Big mistake. How lucky is Harry? Lucky enough to be England’s champion jump jockey. Lucky enough to have his estranged wife, Annabel, still in love with him despite her devotion to her lover, Sir Jeffrey. Lucky enough to avoid serious injury when horsebox driver Keith Whellan, who’s already saved his life once, gets shot as they’re driving off together from the engagement party of Keith’s sister, Holly. Lucky enough that the villains intending to drug Baccus, his mount at Newbury Racecourse, mistakenly drug rival horse Bayard Boy instead, casting grave suspicion on trainer Albertine “Tal” Hunter. Despite Harry’s determination to stop investigating cases of criminal malfeasance, he feels obligated to dig up evidence that would prove Tal’s innocence, especially given the fact that suspicious character Lenny Backhouse has recently been pulled dead from the Smite. Harry’s luck continues when famous screen actress Dame Isabella Pullbright asks him to ride her mounts and when Lady Willamina Branshawe, Bayard Boy’s owner, invites him and a companion to a party, though he’s sorely pressed to figure out who the companion should be. Even the spill he takes when a horse falls from a jump leaves him with no concussion or other serious injuries that would cause the authorities to pull his card. When his luck finally does run out and he suffers the obligatory physical attack, it’s in an unlikely venue that guarantees prompt medical attention.
Excellent racing and track sequences, a so-so mystery, and some truly forgettable bad guys.
science fiction and fantasy
THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY
Kotler, Steven St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $27.99 | April 19, 2022 978-1-2502-0209-3
This fast-moving SF thriller—a follow-up to Last Tango in Cyberspace (2019)— pops with weirdness and imagination. In the near future, society sees a clash between two camps: Humans First and Empathy for All. A human named Lion is an em-tracker, meaning he can empathize with the entire animal kingdom and emit pheromones that permit all species of animals to do the same. Because of a project called the Devil’s Dictionary, “em-trackers feel for all people, of course, but they also feel for plants, animals, and ecosystems.” The em-trackers compare those believing in human dominance to the White supremacists who spout “Redneck cracker Nazi bullshit.” Those benighted folk are influenced by an evil project called Pandora II. Not surprisingly, drugs play a big role in em-tracking. For example, there is Evo, which makes you trip evolution, allowing you to groove with every species that has ever existed. The Devil’s Dictionary is “an AI-version of the DNA typewriter,” meaning humans can change animals’ nature. Thus lions and tigers and bears snarf up their veggies and cuddle with bunnies. Tigers eat grass. Snakes fly, and so do Ubers. A woman is fluent in seven bird languages. Humans can satisfy their carnivorous cravings by eating cultured beef grown from stem cells. There are robocatfish and psychotic polar bear robots that wouldn’t hurt a fly. But not everything goes as expected; for example, imperfectly engineered snakes grow old, die, and rot after they’ve barely hatched. The descriptions rival what you’ll find in Coleridge’s Xanadu or Herbert’s Dune. A dude nicknamed Five Spikes has spiked hair dyed Chernobyl yellow. And try to picture hair that looks like nuclear waste. Special bacteria grow snowflakes the size of quarters. Aside from being funny, the book raises interesting questions. How far should we take genetic engineering? What will we humans be able to do someday, and should we do it? Should we tinker with life itself just because we can? It’s an engrossing story that will make you both laugh and think.
