Ex-KOP
Warren Hammond
Tor, Oct 2008, $24.95
ISBN 9780765312747
In 2788 in the gritty town of Koba on planet Lagarto homicidal dirty detective Diego Banks forces Koba Office of Police cop Juno Mozambe into premature retirement. Juno knows he has no moral stand as he sold out to the powerful crime lords. Before losing his job he was despondent, but now feels like a failure as his efforts as a private investigator proves futile; he feels old, worn-out, and finished with only boozing giving him relief.
His former police partner detective Maggie Orzo quietly hires a reluctant Mozambe to investigate the homicides of the parents of Adela Juarez; the daughter was convicted of the murders and sentenced to be executed. Maggie believes Adela is not only innocent, but her current partner Ian Davies framed the girl. Mozambe works the case muddied by police corruption and attempts to drive him off the inquiry by threatening his family.
The sequel to KOP retains the gritty helplessness of the first futuristic police procedural science fiction (see KOP). Readers will feel they walk the mean streets of a town with no pity alongside of Juno who works a case he does not want to investigate. Fans will appreciate Warren Hammond’s excellent but extremely bleak future Noir as abject poverty leaves everyone harder than the carbonite that froze Hans Solo.
Harriet Klausner
Follow The Clue 
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