On a quasi-generational starship bound for distant space, Dorothy wakes up in a body that is not her own. This is unusual. Aboard the ship Fairweather, she’s lived multiple lifetimes as a detective, reborn from her memory stored in the Library. But not only is Dorothy in the wrong body, someone has been deleting minds from the Library. And Dorothy is the only one who can solve the mystery.

This is described as a cozy space mystery akin to A Memory Called Empire meets Miss Marple. It definitely has some key cozy indicators, like a yarn shop, an invitingly queernorm world, and a formidable auntie (Dorothy herself). It’s altogether charming, even though the mystery itself (and its resolution) seemed lightweight, even for a novella. I’d happily read more though!

Thank you @tordotcompub #partner for the gifted copies of this book!

Oh this was such a great cozy mystery set in space! Ahhh, with the best characters too!! A knitting investigator and the most wonderful setting in a spaceship…what else can someone possibly ask for?! What a unique idea to have memories be destroyed and to live in someone else’s body! I liked the concept of this and the older MC was smart and quick witted. I am excited that this book is the first in a series because I can’t wait to read more in this world!

A delightful cozy mystery set on an interstellar passenger liner, where human lives are as long as their consciousness can be digitally stored. Dorothy Gentleman, the ship's detective, is forcibly "installed" into a body that is not hers, to solve two murders-- a physical one and a digital one. This was brief, but lovely. Exactly what I hoped to experience when I was pitched "Agatha Christie but in space!"

Book Summary:

Dorothy Gentleman is a detective on board the HMS Fairweather, an interstellar passenger ship making a very long journey across the galaxy. As such, the people aboard have grown accustomed to life, death, and rebirth. That is to say, they’re used to the ship putting their consciousnesses into new bodies as needed.

The plan was for Dorothy to spend a few years in deep slumber. But it seems that her skills are needed, as there has been a murder. What’s worse, the victim will not be waking up in a new body to explain it all away. So she’s going to have to do this the hard way.

My Review:

Where has this book been all my life?! No, seriously. I adored Murder By Memory. It’s basically Agatha Christie in space, and I cannot get enough of it. So imagine my delight to learn that this is the first in a series (Dorothy Gentleman). Yes, please!

If you’ve been looking for a cozy mystery series with many unique twists, Murder By Memory is the book for you. It adds loads of sci-fi elements, from traveling through space to body-swapping and pretty much everything in between.

As for the mystery itself, that was quite compelling. We have a world where murders may occur, but they don’t usually stick. So, coming across something more…permanent is raw and strange. Given that it had to be resolved within the timeframe of a novella, it’s not the longest-running mystery, but I still greatly enjoyed it.

Long story short, Murder By Memory is one of my new favorite stories, and I can’t wait for more. I’ll be following Olivia Waite on all bookish sites to ensure I don’t miss out.

Highlights:
Cozy Murder Mystery
Science Fiction
Agatha Christie in Space
LGBTQ+

Trigger Warnings:
Memory Loss

Murder by Memory is a charming blend of cozy mystery and soft sci-fi, introducing readers to the formidable and delightfully shrewd Dorothy Gentleman. Waking up in an unfamiliar body just as a murder shakes the HMS Fairweather, Dorothy—one of the ship’s seasoned detectives—soon realizes the crime is more than just a simple case of bodily harm. Someone is permanently deleting minds from the ship’s Library, a seemingly impossible act in a world where identities are stored like data backups. With three centuries of possible motives and suspects, Dorothy must unravel a conspiracy that threatens the very foundation of their interstellar society.

The novel leans heavily into its mystery elements, keeping the sci-fi aspects light and accessible. While the Fairweather’s world is intriguing, the focus remains on the investigation, with technology and futuristic details woven in as needed rather than dominating the story. Dorothy’s perspective is a refreshing departure from the typical young, brash detective; her no-nonsense attitude, sharp wit, and years of experience make her an engaging lead. The supporting cast, from her feckless but brilliant nephew to the mysterious ex-girlfriend of her body’s previous owner, adds layers of intrigue and charm.

While the mystery itself is compelling, it’s the book’s clever world-building and unique premise—immortality through stored consciousness—that make it stand out. The idea of swapping bodies and preserving minds offers a fascinating backdrop for future stories, and I sincerely hope this becomes an ongoing series. If you enjoy Agatha Christie-style detective work with a dash of sci-fi, Murder by Memory is a must-read.

Thank you to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I struggled to get into this at first because I just kept thinking about wall-e. The idea was really interesting; but just like most novellas, it left me wanting more? I felt like everything wrapped up but it should have been longer.

"Becky Chambers meets Miss Marple in this sci-fi ode to the cozy mystery, helmed by a formidable no-nonsense auntie of a detective.

A mind is a terrible thing to erase...

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty's most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn't hers - just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship's detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor - and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting - knows more than she's letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work - and if so, they've had three hundred years to perfect their schemes...

Told through Dorothy's delightfully shrewd POV, this novella is an ode to the cozy mystery taken to the stars with a fresh new sci-fi take. Perfect for fans of the plot-twisty narratives of Dorothy Sayers and Ann Leckie, this well-paced story will leave readers captivated and hungry for the series's next installment."

Stuart Turton does Altered Carbon.

4.5/5
Prior to reading this, I had enjoyed Olivia Waite's historical romances. I'm happy to report that she is just as good at writing sci-fi mysteries and am happy this looks like it'll be a series.

Detective Dorothy knows something is fishy when she wakes up in the wrong body. With the help of a sentient ship, her irresponsible nephew, & the ex-girlfriend of the woman whose body she's currently in, Dorothy investigates a string of murders. Highly recommend for intriguing world-building, a quick read, and a promising start to a sci-fi series!

I hadn't realized just how short this one was until I Started but I was amazing at how much heavy lifting Olivia Waite did in such a short time without it FEELING like heavy lifting. The whole ship and community were all explained well without being heavy handed. The mystery was engaging and I loved the MC. I'm definitely looking forward to more of these novellas!

This was such a fun, cozy read. The characters were exceptional and the premise was so original. This renewed my love for cozy murder mysteries!

This science fiction novella introduces Dorothy Gentleman who is a detective on the HMS Fairweather - a spaceship on a 1000-year mission. When Dorothy wakes unexpectedly in a body not her own, she finds herself solving a murder case and a financial conspiracy.

I enjoyed the characters in this story and loved the worldbuilding. A thousand-year voyage, minds stored in libraries, and new bodies on demand were all interesting concepts. So was the idea that man's crimes carried into space with the passengers on the ship.

Dorothy was an interesting character who discovered her career as a detective late in life. It is a great fit with her nosy nature. I enjoyed watching her unravel this twisty plot.

4.5 stars - Love the premise, love the characters, and very excited that this is going to be a series! This is just my kind of cozy. You know, in spaaacceee with memory bending sapphic lady detectives who knit

A cozy, slim science fiction mystery set on an interstellar generational ship. Dorothy Gentleman has been between bodies, resting in her memory book in the ship's library, when she suddenly wakes up in a stranger's body and has to solve a murder. I loved her character and I can't wait to read more of her detective adventures onboard the magnificent HMS Fairweather. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group | Tordotcom for a digital review copy.

A cozy murder mystery...in spaaaace. This fast-paced novella does a lot of world-building in a short number of pages, and the mystery is compelling too! Looking forward to reading the next one.

This was a cute, cozy locked-room murder mystery set on a spaceship where everyone's memories are kept in digital books so people can be placed into new bodies over the course of their long space journey. When the ship's detective awakens in a strange body with her memory book erased and a murder to solve, she has to figure out who's killing people by erasing them--permanently.

This novella is a quick cozy mystery set on a spaceship that’s taking a 1000 year journey to a distant planet for resettlement. To accommodate the long journey, the memories of each passenger are stored in the ships library to be used when the passenger expires. Upon death a new body is grown and the memory book is downloaded into the new body. Theoretically murder should be impossible, but when the ships detective Dorothy, awakes in a strange body she discovers that a murder has indeed been committed.

I especially enjoyed that Dorothy is a knitter who finds out that the body she now inhabits lives in a yarn shop on the spaceship. Isn’t it nice to think that these skills might still be practiced in the eons to come? Waite achieves some very clever and entertaining world building in the span of a hundred - some pages.

A fun quick read and I look forward to more of Dorothy’s adventures as the series progresses.
Highly Recommend for fans of Becky Chambers And John Scalzi

A cozy mystery in space, with a library and a yarn shop, it's like this book was tailor-made just for me. I loved everything about this book. A quick little read. I see that it is listed as book #1, which made me very happy as I want to know more about the world that Dorothy lives in. I want to know Ruthie's boyfriend's secrets. I want to know what a summer storm tastes like. And last but not least I want to see the pattern for the knitted fern shawl.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.
This was a fun little murder mystery, on a sort of generation ship where you simply get a new body when your old one dies. Except something goes wrong . . . I enjoyed this and would read more if this becomes a series.

Highlights
~summer storm > brandy
~KNITTING
~an inventors’ club
~being shelved together is The Most Romantic
~a drunk AI

I don’t often use this word, but: Murder by Memory is such a fun little romp!

It also very deftly and economically sketches out a setting I really want more of: the Fairweather is a spaceship that is functionally a city, carrying 10,000+ people from Earth to some new planet they won’t reach for centuries. Unlike a generation ship, though, the Fairweather intends to land with its original passengers, not their descendants, and it’s done this by granting them a kind of immortality: when they die, a digital copy of their consciousness is placed in a new copy of their body, and ta da, they’re walking around again!

(I immediately wanted to know if anyone was having children in this set-up, if that was allowed, but no word on that in this instalment.)

Even though the Fairweather seems to function as a kind of utopia, there are still accidents and crimes, which means there are still detectives – although I was fascinated to discover that they don’t have the power to arrest anyone; they’re literally just supposed to investigate. Our MC Dorothy is one of these detectives, and is called out of digital storage after some very suspicious things go down.

Murder by Memory has a quite lovely Gilded Age vibe to it, despite the far-future setting, and it’s plenty cosy. We have a ship AI who can get drunk; a library of crystal books where the passengers’ consciousnesses are stored; and cocktails that are made of memories instead of alcohol. There are little hints of worldbuilding that made me hungry to know more, like romances that last centuries, a reference to ‘turns’ that implies not every passenger is embodied at the same time (why not?), and the plan to give up immortality when they eventually reach their new planet. (That seems a naive expectation, but okay.) And of course, this is a form of immortality that I really hate, because it’s not immortality – the original consciousness doesn’t live forever, it just keeps getting copied, and I wonder if the passengers will realise that and have to face it when they reach the planet and are supposed to stay in just the one body until it dies?

Dorothy isn’t a hyper-genius like Sherlock Holmes, but she’s smart and methodical and deeply nosy (in a way that might be annoying to live with, but definitely makes her a great character). It certainly doesn’t take her very long to tease out what happened and why. The picture that’s revealed bit by bit is deeply horrifying but sadly believable – yeah, I can buy that terrible people might do that – but the tone is light enough that I doubt most readers will have trouble sleeping afterwards or anything.

It’s a lovely little read, an easy four-stars.

But…

Maybe it’s just that I don’t read enough novellas, but I was left feeling…really unsatisfied, like, that’s it??? Comparing it to the other novellas I’ve read recently – Adrift in Currents Clear and Clean and Orb of Cairado – Murder by Memory feels lacking. Not in quality – it deserves all of its four stars, and I’d give it four point five if the plugin I use to mark ratings let me! But Adrift and Orb both felt chunkier, chewier – they packed a lot more story into their pages.

This might be helped by the fact that both are significantly longer – Adrift is 140 pages on my ereader; Orb, 149 pages. Murder by Memory, on the other hand, is only 80 pages on my ereader.

Look: on the dreaded Big River site, Murder by Memory is $12. Adrift, which is published by Tordotcom just like Murder, is $13. I don’t begrudge it that price, for the record. But paying only one dollar less for Murder, which is about half the length???

Tor, I love you, and I have defended your novella prices for years…but no freaking way.

Murder by Memory is lovely. If you want to read it, I recommend you borrow it from the library. Paying $12 for it – or $20.45, for the hardcover! – makes no sense.

What an interesting genre blend this was!

Is it a mystery? Yes. Is it sci fi? Also yes. Is it fantasy, too? I would argue yes, as we are able to serve memories as cocktails and the process of saving people into books is very much closer to magic than science. Is it a romance? Almost yes, but definitely a relationship book with romantic overtones. Is it literary fiction? Also yes. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect to the writing.

I adore the romantic symbolism of going to the librarian to be “shelved together” and the idea that librarians in this world are a revered and well paid profession. There is so much beauty in the language of this book; at times it was almost a poem.

I would recommend this book to people who love Becky Chambers, folks who enjoyed the Thousand Doors of January, readers of Sarah Gailey, and folks who want a great book club pick with tons of content to discuss in a compact-size book.