(2.5 rounded down). The story was really interesting but I felt like it continually undercut its' own tension. It was a lot of fun ideas but because it was so short, every other page is a conversation and then simple reveal after a certain point. I thought the plot was great but the writing didn't make me excited to find out more. The writing was very tell, not show. It is built into such an interesting world and concept and that is such a small part of the story. I really wished we got to see more of the library or more of how it came to be. This seemed more to be a detailed outline of a super interesting story rather than the completed result.

another banger novella, i have been reading so many of those lately! Tor has really brought them back into fashion in a big way. and this one is so charming!

this cozy mystery takes the intimate village setting of something like Murder, She Wrote and transposes it to space, aboard a sort of generation ship—but rather than actual generations living and dying and being born on the long journey from earth to another habitable planetary body, the passengers aboard the HMS Fairweather are able to preserve and update copies of their minds in the ship's library, and live out as many lifetimes as they desire in successive clones of their own bodies. a REALLY interesting way to get around the length of the journey, to me, and it creates an even more intense insularity among the communities on the ship, with even more time together to forge relationships and make enemies and hatch schemes. i could have happily read a much longer book exploring more of the ship and its residents, and hopefully it will continue to be the setting for more installments!

and of course, a cozy mystery has to have a delightful detective narrator—in this case Dorothy Gentleman, who wakes up after several years of unembodied rest in a body that isn't hers, and is called upon to untangle a murder committed during a magnetic storm. i adore her! her curiosity, her intelligence, her love for textile arts, her buttoned-up affection for her nephew Ruthie and his new partner John, her commentary on the attractiveness of every woman she encounters...she's the queer Miss Marple i didn't know i needed. i'm already shipping her with the suspicious hot blonde who owns the yarn store.

Olivia Waite’s forthcoming sci-fi novella Murder by Memory is set on the Fairweather, an interstellar generation ship where people can live more than one lifetime by uploading their consciousness to a Library and getting a new body after they die—a circumstance that significantly alters both murder and the solving of murders. This novella is a little bit A Memory Called Empire and a little bit P.G. Wodehouse, as the ship’s detective, Dorothy Gentleman, is the practical, inquisitive aunt of an absentminded and absurd-yet-charming nephew. (Everyone is queer, obviously.) While embroiled in solving a case, Dorothy has the intriguing beginnings of a romance with a mysterious and beautiful woman who owns a yarn store. She also drinks an enticing magic cocktail of memory liqueurs that give the drinker the sensory experience of a memory, admires many fiber arts, visits the awe-inspiring Library, and joins a luxurious club full of intellectual troublemakers, making this generation ship seem like a place I would very much like to hang out, despite all the murders.

This is a short, cozy sci-fi mystery with an interesting concept. The idea of storing memories and how it changes crime is fascinating, and the world-building is strong despite the length. The mix of mystery and sci-fi worked really well, though the mystery itself feels a bit straightforward. The characters are fun and likeable, and the story has great queer representation. It’s an easy, engaging read that you will enjoy if you are a fan of light sci-fi and/or mystery.

I enjoyed this novella and have recommended it to several friends who want to dip their toe into contemporary science fiction.

3.5 - there were a lot of really cool ideas in here, but even for a novella this was short so we didn't get to fully explore those ideas. the mystery aspect also felt a bit rushed/straightforward; i think i would have liked more depth to it. but i still had a fun time reading it, and would read more in this series and from this author.

REP: sapphic main character; gay side characters; sapphic side characters [queer - bisexual - author]

A fun, queer and cozy sci-fi novella that is low stakes and an easy read. I loved the concepts of memory books and the entire idea of the ship in general, I do wish it leaned more heavily on the sci-fi and less on the sleuthing side; that's more of a reading preference and what makes it cozy so I can wholeheartedly recommend it as it's written well and the characters are a lot of fun. I was more interested in the actual ship and its inner workings versus the crime that had happened due to the original ideas that Waite had created.

Murder by Memory is a short, sort of cozy sci-fi mystery. I don’t want to say too much, but the story is set on a space ship travelling to a new home. They have been travelling for hundreds of years and so have a way to save your memories to re-install in a copy of your body when you die. It offers a fascinating look at how having no real fear of death can affect crime. I loved this and can’t wait for more!

I absolutely adore this book! Novellas are a hit or miss for me because it's so easy to include not enough or too much information but Olivia Waite was brilliant with balancing out the details! She sprinkled in just enough information about their society and tech for us to understand and all the characters were highly fascinating. This is truly a cozy queer scifi mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed and I'm so excited to read Book 2!

Thank you to Tordotcom for an ARC and getting us in contact with Olivia Waite for a Shit We've Read podcast interview!

Dorothy Gentleman wakes up and learns that her memory book has been destroyed, she's in a body that belonged to someone else, and there's been a murder aboard the generation ship she's lived on for three hundred years. What's a fifty-seven year-old knitting detective to do, but solve the crimes?

A little bit The Mimicking of Known Successes meets The Spare Man, with the technology of The Blighted Stars and A Memory Called Empireto add some interesting flair.

Those who have followed along know that I did not enjoy those books at all (minus Memory, which I LOVED), but somehow the brief nature of this one, with its light touch and quick pace and Miss Marple vibes, worked for me.

Anywho, it's an interesting murder mystery based on a really fascinating premise, and I think I might check out the next installment.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

Thank you to Tordotcom and Macmillan Audio for the review copies! If you’re looking for a quick genre-hybrid novella that’s easy to follow, I would recommend this one.

Murder by Memory is the first book in a cozy sapphic sci-fi mystery series. I thought the worldbuilding was clear and tight given how short the story was.

I am a very casual mystery reader - I never solve the mystery, and truly don’t even try most of the time. So the ending was a surprise to me - you may feel differently if you are a big mystery genre reader.

I thought there was going to be a romance and while there was a hint of one, but I definitely would have liked to see more. There is a meet cute, and it does feel like there’s going to be more to this relationship as the series continues, but at this point I wouldn’t classify it as a romance.

I read this by audio and felt like I could picture the world and keep track of all of the characters - something I often struggle with with both sci-fi and mystery books at times by audio. The characters were clear and the narrator was enjoyable to listen to!

Have you ever wondered what it might look like if Becky Chambers wrote a cosy, Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery? I think it would look a bit like Olivia Waite's wonderful novella Murder by Memory. I was extremely excited to read this sci-fi mystery, especially having read and loved The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics a few years ago. This bite sized mystery story is a wonderfully cosy read with fantastic world-building and great characters. I cannot recommend this more highly, especially if you love the peaceful worlds of Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series.

A very charming, fun little novella - Miss Marple in space, with some gently winking nods to the Golden Age of detective fiction despite the thoroughly futuristic, sci fi tech that both underlies and decorates the plot. The idea of how death and murder work in a world in which death of the body is not necessarily permanent death of the consciousness is a particularly interesting element to introduce to the whodunnit genre. I do hope this becomes a series, I'd happily read any more Dorothy Gentleman stories to come!

Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Easily one of the best books I’ve read in the last year. Immerses you completely and effortlessly in this brand new world, with deft use of an utterly charming and loveable heroine. I hope we get a hundred of them.

Review was in the March 2025 issue of SFRevu.com

Olivia Waite's Murder by Memory is a straight-up police procedural murder mystery with a science fictional twist. Dorothy Gentleman is woken from her rest to find herself in an elevator and, more distressingly, in someone else's body. This rather shocking beginning sets readers up for an interesting and intriguing, journey to find a killer on an interstellar passenger ship, the HMS Fairweather.

Basically Fairweather is a generational ship that has already been on its journey for three centuries. The difference is that the people aboard do not have children to deserve the term generation ship. Passengers live 'til they die and then are given a new body with all the memories of the previous body. This becomes an important issue from the beginning as the murder of a passenger was followed up by the destruction of their memory backup. Thus the deceased can not be revived.

Dorothy, a Ship Detective, was awakened from her rest to find the murderer and determine how the Memory Library Archive was breached and the backups destroyed. Since the story is from Dorothy's point of view, readers know what she does as she interviews passengers and crew to solve the crime. In the process, we learn more about the ship, its passengers, social structure, environment, and how the legal system is applied when crimes arise.

There were some surprising twists to the investigation I didn't expect. The world building of this small community was incredibly believable in the context of the story. The story had a very different way of handling voyages that could take thousands of years.

Murder by Memory was a complex and satisfying mystery while also giving readers an interesting twist on a science fiction genre trope.

Imagine waking up in the wrong body, on a spaceship where death is usually just a minor inconvenience — only to find out someone has figured out how to make it permanent. That’s the setup for Seattle author Olivia Waite’s novella, “Murder by Memory” (Tordotcom, $21.99), a delightfully oddball mix of cozy mystery and sci-fi, where the biggest crime isn’t just murder — it’s erasing minds from existence.

Dorothy Gentleman, the ship’s detective and certified no-nonsense auntie, is the kind of investigator who gets things done with a sharp eye and sharper wit. She’s not exactly thrilled to be thrust into a case mid-body swap. Still, when someone starts tampering with the ship’s supposedly indestructible memory archives, she dusts off her detective hat (metaphorically speaking — though I wouldn’t put it past her to own one).

The real star of “Murder by Memory” is its imaginative world-building: cocktails made from memories, a possibly tipsy sentient ship and a society where true love means sharing a memory shelf. The mystery itself is intriguing, if not the most twisty, but the charm of the setting and Dorothy’s dry humor make up for it.

A little Miss Marple in space, a little “Black Mirror” but make it comfy, “Murder by Memory” is a quirky, clever and thoroughly enjoyable read. Maybe stay away from the memory cocktails, though, if you’re prone to bad decisions.

Super thankful for Tor for this eArc! I had read Olivia Waite for my Queer Bridgerton post last Summer, and her work was my favorite part of that project, for sure! I was happy to return to her flowy, cozy writing style, this time with a new twist.

This is a sci-fi set in a far-future spaceship where humans have achieved a strange type of immortality, by backing up their memories and uploading them into new bodies. This novella follows Dorothy, the ship's equivalent of a detective, when she's unexpectedly brought back to life, in a body she doesn't recognize, and smack in the middle of a murder case!

This was fun! It is definitely what it's pitched as -- a cozy mystery with a Becky Chambers twist. The writing style and the characters are very enjoyable, and I love the worldbuilding. But, as I often feel with mystery novellas, I think I needed some more time with this case. It goes by quickly and the resolution comes in too abruptly. But the ending seems to point to a sequel, which I would not be opposed to!

Also props to Olivia Waite for inserting some fiber arts in here. I see you doing it in all your books and I respect the hustle.

DNF @ 60%

A cozy read, just not the read for me. The author spent a little too much time world-building (and what a world it was) and it felt like the plot was almost secondary to all the quirky sci-fi stuff happening. Great for readers who want to feel immersed in a world where the stakes feel incredibly low (which is saying something, considering it's a story about a murder). I think that if you love those older detective soaps (think Murder, She Wrote with a little more whimsy), you'd love this.

(Thanks to Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC. All opinions are my own.)

This was such an interesting story. It’s a mystery but veers into science fiction. It’s a quick book but intriguing from start to finish.

I'm picky about my novellas, especially a mystery that has to be wrapped up in so few pages, but Olivia Waite's new series is really fitting the bill of quality content. The world-building was subtle but clear, and the mystery was fun and kept me guessing.