Oversight

by Thomas Claburn

Overview

Disgraced detective Sam Crane would do anything to help his comatose daughter recover. But when he's told to turn a blind eye to the murder of a reclusive scientist, he refuses, seeing his resolve as atonement for failing his family and his colleagues.

Sam's determination to persevere endangers his friends, even as it reveals a secret sought by a deluded advertising magnate, a set of look-alike terrorists, and government agents: a way to alter the visible world. If only he could have seen the truth through his own eyes.

Confronting a deceptive, hyper-commercial world amid a pandemic of blindness, Sam realizes he must embrace the artifice he resents to maintain his integrity. He plays his adversaries against each other in a gamble that puts his investigation at risk but offers a way to mend his fractured life-if he can survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780986101601
Publisher:	Lot 49 Labs, LLC
Publication date:	03/14/2015
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/08/2015
This intense murder mystery is set in a mid-21st-century world so saturated with commercialism that everything is licensed, silence costs money, and private detectives are now "information speculators." San Francisco "spec" Sam Crane, still mourning the accidental death of his wife and the unending coma of his 5-year-old daughter, Fiona, is called in to investigate the murder of a prominent scientist, Dr. Xian Mako. The only clue is a pair of antique galvanized glasses on Dr. Mako's body, and they soon vanish. When Sam refuses to drop the case, he becomes tangled in a vastly bigger plot involving terrorists, a blindness-causing biological attack, and the corporate mogul who puts Fiona into an experimental coma-busting drug trial—all to the tune of a ceaseless media barrage that makes life cheap and expensive all at once. Claburn's novel is all the more tense and frightening for feeling only one step away from today, a feeling relieved by Sam's old-fashioned cynicism mixed with his willingness to do anything for his daughter. His deep emotions make him the most real and absorbing feature of this vivid story about a virtual world overloaded with real danger. (BookLife)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2015-04-23
An investigator uncovers a conspiracy to launch a viral attack in Claburn's (Reflecting Fires, 2001) sci-fi thriller. In 2050, Capt. Luis Cisco brings in "data speculator" Sam Crane to investigate the murder of scientist Dr. Xian Mako. Sam takes Mako's peculiar rose-colored glasses to his friend Jacob to find out how much they might be worth. The case quickly becomes personal when Jacob is found dead and the glasses go missing. Sam looks further into Mako's purchase of the specs and, because the scientist was poisoned with tetrodotoxin, he pays a visit to a restaurant that serves fugu. It seems, however, that some people don't want the murder solved: Luis warns Sam off the case, and a mysterious, "sharply dressed man" follows Sam around. Before long, the feds are accusing the investigator of ties to terrorists. Meanwhile, a biological attack that causes blindness prompts another investigation. The novel is a chic fusion of the sci-fi and detective genres. For example, Sam is roughed up by FBI agents who forcibly hook him up to a device to read his mind; he also converses, via helmet mic, with a network agent who has Marilyn Monroe's voice. Sam is a solid protagonist who's always ready to employ a snappy line or his fists when the situation calls for it. But he's also sympathetic: he's unquestionably upset over Jacob's death, for example, and regularly sees his comatose 5-year-old daughter, Fiona, who needs constant medical care. The story piles on the mysteries; at one point, for example, the affluent Harris Cayman, whom Sam has never met, bumps Fiona to the top of the list for a drug trial. Claburn also injects a notable satirical theme involving advertising—the network agent endlessly pitches products, depending on what Sam's doing, and even ominously suggests life insurance. (Sam can only temporarily silence Marilyn by paying.) The narrative is self-contained, ultimately answering every question it raises, but it leaves the door open just a crack for a potential sequel. An invigorating sci-fi mystery that's so plugged in it may leave readers' brains buzzing.

Kirkus Reviews