Burt Holmes, P.I.

Part noir part sci fi adventure, Burt Holmes PI is a thrilling novel by newcomer A.M. Roelke.

Burt Holmes was a cop, but something happened and now he is a PI with gaps in his memory and all too many regrets. What he does have is a sense of right and wrong and a desire to protect. It leads him into taking a case for an ancestral captain – a young girl who fears for the welfare of a brother she has never met. Her father, another ancestral captain, is a cruel man with money and connections and a history of being abusive.

The ancestral captains command immense ships and control the majority of commerce. Perseus Station and many others is dependent upon their business. That makes them not only powerful but entitled. Wade Hampton, Holmes's client, is at once vulnerable and dangerous. While she has had control over her ship for several years, she is not emotionally mature and her history has made her unstable. Holmes is yet another complex character. He is missing a large portion of his memories. His reaction to Wade is mixed, both because he wants to help and protect her and because he knows how dangerous she is.

I liked Burt Holmes, PI a great deal. Its complex characters and interesting plot combining scifi and noir elements make it a good choice for scifi fans. Roelke is definitely an author to watch. I look forward to seeing if Burt Holmes returns in a second novel.

4/5

I received a copy of Burt Holmes, PI from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

Burt Holmes, P.I. by A. M. Roelke

I'm a sucker for private eye books let alone private eye in space books. In a way that makes me more critical of the genre as I do know what I like. This does not have the overtones of humor that the Glen Cook Garrett books have, which I dearly love. However this does have a lot of soul searching angst. That can get tedious but Roelke did a great job in making it real rather than tedious.

The tale is of a P.I. on the Perseus space station gets a client who he is inexplicably attracted to, despite their dramatic age differences. Burt, the P.I., is both protective and derisive of the client and can not determine why.

The client, Wade Hampton, is an ancestral starship captain which imbues her with wealth, prestige and power. In Wade's case this does not mean maturity. Wade is a teen with great power, great self control and periodically normal teen behavior in spite of her best efforts to be an adult.

Burt's personal demons are hidden and a source of enormous frustration. He does not know what some of his greatest motivators are and is unawre that they are intentionally shrouded in mystery.

The story has action, brutality, robots and space ships, what more could you want.

The hard nose P.I. discovers many things about himself as does his client.

I really enjoyed the book and hope to see a sequel!

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