Thank you to NetGalley and to Macmillan Audio for the ARC of Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite.

Blair Baker does an excellent job in the narration of this audiobook - I really enjoyed listening to her bring the novel to life.

Waite has built a fascinating world in this sci-fi cozy mystery where a generation space-ship on a 1,000 year journey from Earth to a new home allows its residents to store their memories in memory books while also allowing them to regenerate their bodies when needed so that they may live forever. Dorothy Gentleman, a detective on the ship, wakes from a two year slumber in someone else's body, and finds that for the first time in ship history, a true murder has occurred as a person is found dead and their memory book has been deleted, preventing that person from being reborn. Dorothy finds herself unexpectedly but excitedly on the case, and dives right in to questioning suspects and visiting family in search of answers.

Besides the excellent world-building, Waite packs quite a lot of plot development and characterization in a short package. You feel for Dorothy, having experienced full lives so many times before and being ready for a rest, and you want to learn more about her nephew Ruthie and his wild adventures and inventions onboard, as well as the larger realm of people making their lives on a generation ship that has banks, clubs, yarn shops and more waiting to be explored.

I really look forward to this being a series with longer installments. Waite has all the pieces necessary to create a compelling, interesting and inventive cozy mystery sci-fi series.

4 stars!

What a pleasant little bite-sized murder mystery! And set in a really solid sci-fi world that I can't wait to read more about!

Dorothy wakes up in an elevator in another woman's body with no memory of the past two years and only a slightly tipsy ship AI to catch her up. On a long-haul ship way. out in the dark of space, where inhabitants' minds are stored and resurrected into new bodies upon their deaths, murder is afoot! Doesn't that description just make you want to cozy down with this novella on a rainy day? Murder mysteries aren't super up my alley so I can't speak to how well executed that part of the plot was but I'm desperately hoping that the author is planning to write more set in this world. I really loved the characters (shout out to the narrator for being exactly the right amount of silly with it) and the memory technology on the ship was really cool and I can see how much potential it has for mysteries. It's kind of giving The Dispatcher series by John Scalzi with the resurrection and the fact that it's a mystery novella but a little less noir and a little more cozy.

Super fun, and I will be eagerly awaiting a sequel!

Thank you to Olivia Waite and Macmillan Audio for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

Murder by Memory is a fantastic short sci-fi mystery following a detective who wakes up in a body that is not her own. The worldbuilding was perfectly balanced between something that wasn't complex enough to take up too much of the limited space, but was still interesting and made sense. The characters were fleshed out but not held down by their past. The mystery was interesting and exciting to follow. This is a masterfully done work that not many authors could pull off. This hasn't even been released, but I'm already ready for the next installment. I think this works perfectly as a story to go into completely blind.

I sped through the audiobook in one sitting. The narration was good and easy to follow.