Midnight, Water City

Water City, Book 1

By: Chris Mckinney

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Hawai‘i author Chris McKinney’s first entry in a brilliant new sci-fi noir trilogy explores the sordid past of a murdered scientist, deified in death, through the eyes of a man who once committed unspeakable crimes for her.

Year 2142: Earth is 30 years past a near-collision with the asteroid Sessho-seki. Akira Kimura, the scientist responsible for eliminating the threat, has reached heights of celebrity approaching deification. But now, Akira feels her safety is under threat, so after years without contact, she reaches out to her former head of security, who has since become a police detective.

When he arrives at her deep-sea home and finds Akira methodically dismembered, this detective will risk everything - his career, his family, even his own life - and delve back into his shared past with Akira to find her killer. With a rich, cinematic voice and burning cynicism, Midnight, Water City is both a thrilling neo-noir procedural and a stunning exploration of research, class, climate change, the cult of personality, and the dark sacrifices we are willing to make in the name of progress.

©2021 Chris Mckinney (P)2021 Recorded Books Inc.

Finally something different !!!

I really loved this storyline. I loved the setting . I loved the characters. What a creative and original idea !

The narrator had the tone of maybe some kind of comedic John Dortmunder book and I guess I thought that was the wrong tone.
On the other hand a more serious tone would have really made this a more depressing story. It's a first person narrative. He seems to be very unlucky and is his worst own worst enemy in most cases.

Great book

Good main character, good plot from the traditional detective genre, with a different type of sci fi/futuristic backdrop.

Thrilling & entertaining

The audio narration is wonderful and the story was very entertaining. The content had a mix of mystery thriller and environmental horror. McKinney explored human dynamics with failed relationships in the main character and supporting cast. At the core is redemption for past failures.

My only 6-Star Review for 2021

I have always asked Audible to allow readers who download more than 50 books in a single genre in a year to give one six star review in that period. (So far no luck...so I do it myself.) I don't have to wait for the end of this year to make that decision. As seemingly inviting as the hybrid of police procedural and science fiction may seem, it is treacherous ground. Many good authors falter there. That makes the few that truly work stand out. This book hits the sweet spot of a story that is essentially hard sci-fi without making the detective seem superfluous. Set in the very recognizable future, there are social and political overtones, but they never go too far. The lead character is performed by Richard Ferrone -- who for my money is the best narrator for police procedurals in the business. (He also does John Sanford's Lucas Davenport...and is to an older, reluctant detective what R.C. Bray is to military guys.) The story is complex without getting out of control, and there are many, many clever new ideas folded into the story. There are no miraculous twists or deus ex machina solutions. Thankfully, it also goes against the latest fad by presenting a future which, while not rosy, is positive and non-apocalyptic.

Tedious

the story meanders along taking forever to make any plot points or disclose any action. in spite of the fact that it's quite violent, it made me think of a matron clutching her pearls.

Worst book I’ve ever been able to finish (Spoilers)

Fans of Always Sunny in Philadelphia may recall the gang coming up with a movie where Dolph Lundgren call smell crime and shows full penetration sex scenes. If you love the first part but could do with the latter, this book is for you. Seriously.

Also the authors throws out Noir sounding lines that don’t really make sense in context to the action. Silly concepts, poor character development, motivations that don’t add up. I felt as though the plot was a square peg being forced through a round hole.

The villain carries a projector and MRI machine on her person so she can expose her master plan to the hero. And in case that wasn’t clear enough, she gives him her journal to answer every last question.

The main character is constantly going on tangents and expositions to explain the world he lives in. There is no trust that the reader is smart enough to pay attention and figure things out. This is the shining example of telling rather than showing.

As a fan of noir and cyberpunk, I get the sense the author has spent enough to mimic the sound of the genre but never understood it.