Dirk Mongomery is a normal human. That makes him unusual in Seattle of 2052, where magic and cybernetics seem to be weilded by every Tom, Dick, and Houdini. But Dirk is something of a romantic, as well as a stickler for the millenia-old tradition of being entirely human, so he's rather proud of the lack. It also explains why he decided to help the woman who aimed a gun at his head instead of giving her the royal boot.
The lady's sister, an old flame of Dirk's, is dead, and somebody set him up to take the fall. Dirk needs to find out who and why before he tries again with a more successful plan. The case will take him to some places he'd never have suspected. It will involve aspects of the Awakened World that he's never heard of. And it will get very personal when Dirk's own sister has been drawn into the fray.
There's not much better reading than a good mystery. The only issue is that the definition of "good mystery" varies from reader to reader. For me, it needs a heavy dose of science fiction or fantasy, and I prefer it in first person with a reasonable but not overwhelming level of humor - light, but not satirical.
And Findley delivers exactly this. Shadowrun is chock full of both sci-fi and fantasy, and Dirk gives his wit a voice in exactly the right places. The author also has a positive gift for describing people and locations in a wry but still perfectly descriptive manner that I found positively captivating. Sometimes he goes a little overboard, as when he spends most of a page describing the look and atmosphere of a sleazy bar. But I couldn't bring myself to mind, because it was absolutely wonderful.
Findley includes two other nice touches, as well. Every private detective you read about always seems to have a load of contacts in important places, friends in the coroner's office and the police department and so on. I've always wondered how such contacts are made; does he just walk into these places after he gets his business going, shake some hands, buy a drink, and now they're a contact? A lot of the mysteries I've read seem to gloss over this aspect. 2XS doesn't. Dirk actually mentions how he met most of these people, and why they became friends. It's a minor nuance to a book, but it was nice to see it.
The other is a little more important. At the same time, it's harder to quantify, because I'm talking about how human most of the characters are. They hide their emotions, blow up for no reason and then apologise later. They have prejudices, and it's not always racial. There is angst, justified and not. And the characters clearly care about certain things and people, and they change a little as the book progresses. It's just very good characterization.
The biggest problem I had with the book is that several times a lead more or less drops into Dirk's lap out of nowhere. For instance, a friend asks for his help, and in the process drops a name and address that is exactly what Dirk needs to proceed with his own case. The friend promptly vanishes from the novel afterwards, except for one or two mentions as Dirk puts all the clues together. Another time, he is watching the news and sees something intriguing. It has nothing to do with his case, working by strict logic, but his curiosity over this other issue helps break things wide open. Personally, I much prefer it when these things are solved due to a detective's skills and brains, and not because he happened to catch a lucky break. Especially when it happens two or three times.
The only other issue I had was that every time - and I do mean every time - Dirk had to pay someone for their services, whether it's a free meal for some information or hard nuyen for a cyberdeck run, he'd wince at what it was doing to his bank balance. After a while, I had to ask myself how he could afforf all these expenses if he's so down-and-out. He certainly doesn't act like a total tightwad, so it's not just a mental quirk. But it's the only plausible possiblity.
But those problems are, well, not minor. But the first can be overlooked, especially if you don't mind someone lucking into a lead, and the second is momentary, albeit reoccurring. It, too, can be easily ignored. And the great things about this book easily outweigh any flaws in the writing, anyway. Frankly, I loved this book, and would heartily recommend it.
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