This is a quick read super satisfying sci-fi novella from Olivia Waite. Waite offers a future where humans upload their memories into books, meaning that murder is on the decline, as the victim can just be re-downloaded into a new body. Instead of heading for the dystopic, however, Waite's ship feels more gently utopic...with the recognition of loopholes that stop this utopia from seeming sinister and instead framing it as made from various ways that humans could treat one another better than we do.

3.5 stars

This little sci-fi murder mystery novella is wildly different from the historical romance I have read from Olivia Waite, but her skill at writing sympathetic and slightly mischievous characters remains.

I’d characterize the genre a little more as science fantasy than science fiction, because the futuristic ‘science’ of distilling memories into cocktails and uploading human consciousness into books is much more imaginatively than technically based; however, it takes place on a spaceship and the mystery is solved through deductive reasoning, so it’s certainly grounded in a sense of psychological reality if not the ‘real world.’

There’s an endearing Woodhousean quality to the characters, who despite being three-century-old personalities in recycled bodies careening through the stars all have a charmingly early- to mid-century well-to-do Britishness about their mannerisms (also reminiscent of Agatha Christie adaptations).

While I do think the novella length worked (high praise from me, who often finds novellas leaving me feeling a little short-changed) I really wish that knitting (one of the main characters’ (reported) principle hobbies) had played a much larger role in the plot. Hopefully it will do so in future installments.

Cozy sci-fi mystery? On a spaceship? What is not to love. I wish this was a full length novel because all I can say is I want more. It feels like an episode of a TV show and I want a whole season. I loved Dorothy and the drunk sounding AI.

Though this story very much had an in-medias-res start in terms of the world construct, I like the narrator's voice and found the reveals of the plot structure easy to identify. I just wish some of them had been clearer sooner. Overall it was a quick pleasant read. I would recommend it to fans of Murderbot and other cozy sci-fi reads.

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

Thanks to NetGalley for this gifted ARC!

If you love detective stories with a sci-fi twist, Murder by Memory is a must-read. Set aboard a ship traveling to a new planet—a journey that takes over a thousand years—the story introduces a fascinating concept: memories are stored and uploaded into new bodies, allowing people to live lifetime after lifetime.

Our main character, a detective, unexpectedly wakes up in a new body after her previous death, only to find herself in the middle of a murder investigation. Someone has been killed, and she has to solve the case while adjusting to her unfamiliar form.

I was hooked from the start! The mystery was engaging, the pacing kept me turning pages, and the world-building on the ship was so well done. This book sets the stage for more stories to come, and I could easily see it becoming a TV series in the future. If you love detective mysteries with a unique setting, this one is for you!

⭐ Releases March 18, 2025! Highly recommend for sci-fi and mystery lovers. ⭐

I do love a little genre mixer, and this one is a murder mystery that takes place on a space ship, so it squarely fit my interests. I didn’t know it was a novella, and I was disappointed when I figured it out about halfway through, because I wanted to spend more time in the fascinating world that Waite built up, where our consciousness never runs out of bodies to reanimate into. It did take away from the “murder” aspect a bit, but then the stakes are appropriately raised. I very much enjoyed the characters sketched out, and would love to spend more time with them! And it gave me a reprieve from a reading slump, bless.

This was a fun setting for a mystery, and I really enjoyed the writing. The narrator is a detective whose consciousness has been on a space ship for 300 years. The technology that allows for a thousand-year voyage in which residents store their memories in books and get new bodies when the old ones die is never fully explained, but the mystery that revolves around this technology is well thought-out and entertaining. I liked the idea, for example, that if you give a murder victim a couple of days for their memories to be restored to a new body, they could help you figure out who killed them.

I loved Dorothy's voice and her relationship with her nephew Ruthie. The ship's reaction to the magnetic storm was very funny. If this is the start of a series, I'm definitely up for more.

This was a great queer cozy sci fi mystery novella! It's engaging, fast-paced, and a lot of fun! Dorothy Gentleman is a detective on board a generation ship who finds herself in the wrong body. Another passenger is dead and someone has erased Dorothy's memory book! It's up to Dorothy to solve the case before anyone else dies.

This book packs a PUNCH at just at 100 pages. Like... this is seriously a master class in storytelling. I was introduced to new sci-fi technology but I wasn't confused. The world of the ship and societal norms were so clear. It felt like I was reading a cozy mystery (like a queer Murder She Wrote) on a spaceship (think Wall-E). The vibes were just sooo good.

There's no reason for you *not* to read it. I mean... it'll only take you an hour or so. Just pick it up. I'm sure you won't be sorry!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with copies of the book in exchange for my honest review.

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…

This novella has an interesting premise, a sci-fi mystery on a spaceship where people don't actually die unless they are murdered. Work in a detective that is easily distracted by knitting and you'll have many who want to read more about Dorothy and her adventures in space.
Listed as the first in a new series, this was very enjoyable and I'll be waiting to read the next one.

I would read a dozens, hundreds of books set in this world. Epic sci-fi worldbuilding meets cozy mystery with glimmers of Sapphic romance....absolutely delightful.

I enjoyed this but it felt like the beginning of a story rather than a complete story. I'd love seeing where the universe and characters go next but this was more of a taster than a fully fleshed out story imo.

Olivia Waite's Murder by Memory is your next cozy read. Whether you love Becky Chambers or are looking for a cozy murder mystery, this novel has the best of both worlds. A brooding yet loveable detective. Quicky queer side characters, including a hungover AI. A spaceship traveling to a distant planet. Grab your cozy knitted blanket and a warm cup of tea, and enjoy!

Minority Report but make it a book, and better! I highly enjoyed this novella - excellent storytelling, easy to digest, and very fun!!

Oh, I LOVED this and need a whole series stat. I want to learn so much more about the HMS Fairweather, and all 10000 humans who have had 300 years together, starting over and over in new bodies. I neeeeeeeed more.

This should have been a full fledged book, I'd have happily spent time on that. This felt like a quick rushed writing sprint than anything else.

I received an advance copy of this novella via NetGalley.

Murder by Memory is a staunchly science fiction mystery; by that, I mean this is definitely for SF readers, as it has a twisty-turny plot that might lose trad mystery readers.

The HMS Fairweather is ship on a thousand-year journey to a new world. People’s essences are stored in a Library, and when their bodies wear out, they can be restored… usually. So when ship detective Dorothy Gentleman awakens in someone else’s body, she knows something went very wrong.

The mystery is fascinating and fast to read, the technology unique and fascinating. The end delivers twists I never would have seen coming. That said, I was left wondering about a significant aspect of humanity: faith, either in familiar Earth forms or in something new aligning with a shifted view on souls and eternity.

My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this novella that is a mix of science fiction and mystery, with a bit of family drama.

For the longest time when I started reading books I was strictly a genre person. Mystery, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, horror, the only regular fiction I read was what was assigned in school. Unless there was swords, lasers, detectives, knights or spies, I was uninterested. Gradually my taste changed, but it took a long while. My biggest joy was finding books that mixed my taste in stories. Science fiction with a bit of mystery, or mystery with a bit of science fiction. Two great tastes that go great together was my feeling. I guess I was not alone in liking this treat. Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite mixes a bit of classic mystery, family strife, love gone wrong, knitting, and a lot of future science.

Dorothy Gentlemen is used to being awoken to help solve a crime, but being awoken in a different body, younger than the one she remembered was a surprise. Also the fact that her computer Dorothy was used to talking to sounded almost drunk, and confused. Dorothy is a shipboard detective on the HMS Fairweather, the most splendid interstellar liner in the galaxy. The Fairweather has been in space for 307 years, and Dorothy has been very good at solving crimes that always arise when humans are close to each other, even on a luxury ship like the Fairweather. Magnetic storms have interfered with the ship's computer, leading to computer problems, and even worse problems, leading to Dorothy being returned from sleep in a new body. A new body that might have something to do with a body in a stateroom. And one that might lead to a lot of other crimes, some of them repeated over and over.

The story is short, but sets up the world quite well, a interstellar ship, but leaves a lot of mysteries for further stories. I do hope there are more for this was a very well plotted tale, with interesting ideas, and even better interesting characters. The book is a little Philip K. Dick mixed with Miss Marple. And of bit of Ann Rule serial killing. There is a lot to the science of how the passengers exist on the ship, including a library that stores the thoughts and memories of people, allowing them to live long lives. Even if they are murdered, they can be rebooted and placed in new bodies. The characters are different, and one would like to learn more about them. Again I hope there is more stories I like the idea, and want to know more. I look forward to reading more in this series and more by Olivia Waite.

This was a cozy sci-fi murder mystery with a protagonist who loves to knit. The whole concept of memories and being reborn was fascinating and I love the queer representation here. I do wish it was a bit longer. The mystery felt a little underwhelming to me but overall I enjoyed it.

Dorothy wakes up in a body that is not hers. The waking up is not unusual, she is a passenger on a space ship on a centuries long voyage, but normally people wake up in a newer version of their old body. People’s memories are kept downloaded in their “book” kept in the ships library and when one dies the memories are downloaded into a new version of that person’s body. But Dorothy was not ready to wake up, much less in someone else’s body, but she is a ship’s detective and there has been both a murder and, worse, books in the library have been destroyed so the dead woman cannot be revived. Dorothy must solve the murder while her nephew figures out how to keep more “book” from being destroyed in the future.
This is a really quick read - Kindle says a bit over an hour - so more than a short story but not quite a novella. The premise is interesting. A space ship from earth on its way to somewhere on a voyage already into its third century. Rather than people in cryo sleep a method of preserving memories and then reinstalling them into a new (cloned?) body when the old one wears out is standard, basically no one really dies. With more or less ten thousand residents the ship is a thriving civilization and the characters we do meet, Dorothy, her nephew Ruthie and his boyfriend/partner John, are all interesting people we want to know more about.
I really liked the whole premise of this story and fervently hope we will see more of Dorothy and the other passengers. Recommended