Testament of Leaves

​​In the isolated thickets of a faraway planet, a linguist lies dead. Inscrutinator Shameesh Kulkarni must find out why. But no one wants to talk: not the prospectors searching for mineral wealth, not the archaeologists trying to piece together a ruined city, not the local schoolteacher, and certainly not the indigenous people whose language the dead woman was researching.

Only two beings are interested in helping Shameesh solve the murder: a digital replica of the victim herself, and the in...