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The Cold Between Is a Propulsive Blend of Mystery and Space Opera
In Elizabeth Bonesteel’s debut novel The Cold Between, a murder of a Central Corps military officer and the destruction of a starship a quarter century earlier are linked by a deep conspiracy that threatens to shake the intergalactic Central Gov to its foundations. As far as space opera mysteries go, this one doesn’t disappoint. Bonesteel has crafted a propulsive outer space thriller that will keep you hooked to the very end.
The novel kicks off with the destruction of the Phoenix, two-and-a-half decades earlier. The ship was rigged to blow for unknown reasons, and in the ensuing years, conspiracy theories surrounding its disappearance have proliferated. What was really going on in orbit over the human colony world Volhynia? The trouble is, there is a conspiracy afoot: someone is trying to prevent anyone from digging too deeply into the mystery.
Decades later, Danny Lancaster, a member of the Central Corps ship Galileo, is discovered dead on Volhynia. Suspicion falls on Treiko Zajec, former captain of the outlaw tribe PSI, whose members have broken off from Central Gov and prefer to live out their days in isolation on massive generation ships. However, Galileo’s chief engineer, Commander Elena Shaw knows that it couldn’t have been Zajec: the pair had a passionate fling the night before. Someone is trying to pin the crime on him, which begs the question: who really killed Lancaster, and why?
As Shaw works to clear her lover’s name, she follows the tenuous threads to discover there’s more to the case than simple murder, and her investigation could plunge the sector into war. The plot spirals outward from this small-scale act of violence, expanding to envelop events of monumental proportions, and revelations that shake Shaw’s faith in the very system that she’s part of.
We’re suckers for a good space opera around here, and The Cold Between absolutely delivers. Bonesteel builds an intriguing world will be familiar to seasoned readers of Cherryh, Lowachee, Traviss, and Zahn, but which also offers its own entirely new twists. The politics are compelling—the Central Corps, the Syndicate, and the PSI, all working against and alongside one another as humanity pushes further out into space, terraforming worlds as they go—but the characters truly stand out.
Bonesteel has constructed a fantastic protagonist and surrounded her with a colorful band of friends and antagonists Elena Shaw is tough, competent, and wholly realistic as she navigates her way through a labyrinthine mystery. She’s passionate and occasionally temperamental, and her chapters are a delight to read. She is accompanied by Trey, the former PSI captain, now retired from the life of space travel. Due to his former occupation and an unfortunate incident in his youth, he’s often targeted by the authorities, which explains why they finger him when Lancaster is killed. As the central conflict deepens, we’re introduced to other members of Shaw’s crew, each of them sketched out with expert economy. The book is rich in characters, and I can’t wait to see what the author has in store with future installments—though it tells a great story, it very much left me wanting more.
The Cold Between is an exceptionally promising debut, and if the subtitle can be trusted, I can imagine that we’ll see new entries in this Central Corps series before long. I can’t wait.
The Cold Between is available March 8.