Don D’Ammassa, Scarab

Scarab

Don D'Ammassa

Five Star, April 2004, $25.95, 268 pp.

ISBN 1594141444

In the far distant future earth is just a memory as humanity has colonized countless worlds in numerous galaxies. One aspect of civilization remains the same: when there is people there is crime. The planet Tashista with its strict class system has bred a whole underground of millions of people engaging in some form of criminal activity. Crime and poverty abound in the Nashamata, the lowest class of society in the city of Soshambe.

A serial killer known as the Scarab has killed twenty seven people over a two year period but since the victims were Nashamata, authorities didn't use all the resources at their disposal to catch the killer. In his third year of killing, The Scarab's first victim is the Prefect of Kishamkur's son and he uses all his considerable power to bear to make the catching of the killer a number one priority. Helping them is a pattern analyst and private detective Sandor Dyle who gets pulled into the investigation because the case interests him and almost becomes the killer's last victim.

This science fiction police procedural is action packed, exciting and will appeal to readers of both genres. The only way to rise above one's present class is through credit and the Nashamata have very few venues to earn a living forcing them to turn to crime to eke out a subsistence existence. Tashista is a fascinating if bleak place, a society that has isolated itself from the rest of the civilized universe because it doesn't want to be contaminated by outside ideas. SCARAB is a fascinating mystery with many unexpected red herrings to divert the reader away from the true killer.

Harriet Klausner