David N. Drury Jupiter’s Shadow

Jupiter's Shadow

David N. Drury

Five Star, Sept 2007, $25.95, 343 pp.

ISBN 9781594146077

On the Jupiter Station of the Conglomerated Mining and Manufacturing Companyprivate detective Michael Flynn and his wife Wendy Chadwick head of the legal department are content with their respective jobs. Flynn is hired by Francine Cross to find out if her husband is cheating on her. The case turns deadly when Leron's body is found dead; the victim of a homicide.

Before Leron was murdered there was another homicide at the station but it takes a while for Company Security to find out who the deceased is as his DNA is not in the database of company security chief Silvanus Drake. Flynn's wife hires him to find out who killed the unidentified victim and Drake puts Flynn on a yearly retainer so if that something happens to him, Michael will take over his job. Drake and Flynn believe the murders have to with the weapon that was placed in the station a decade ago that was neutralized by Drake and that the person who put it there is coming to blow up the station. Flynn and Drake hope to catch that person soonest because they don't know if there are anymore weapons like that on the station.

Taking place only four decades in the future, readers get a glimpse of what it could be like living on a space station with 24,000 people. It is a small city with its own culture and laws (reminds me of a place called Co-op City in the Bronx). The hero is a man who succeeds at what he is trying to do. Readers will enjoy the characterizations, the action that is plentiful, and the locale.

Harriet Klausner