Aboard the Helen of Troy in the Far Distant Future

Spander Dyle of the planet Hazard, where it's become strong or perish, has gained a reputation as an amateur sleuth. If given enough data, Dyle has an uncanny ability to see patterns that others, including invented processors, would miss. He and his friend Marym Dunnis, who once saved his life, are taking advantage of reduced rates to travel from Linnisfarne to Pradesh on the starliner Helen's shakedown cruise. (Interesting how long the Greek myths remain in human memory.) The Helen incorporates Eco -- the closest man has come to creating a true artificial intelligence -- to run the ship and care for the passengers' comfort. No one has yet built a self-aware machine; Eco and her precursors are built to mimic the best in natural intelligence and are known as artificial personalities.

On the first night out, Dyle awakens with the feeling that something is wrong. He's sure of it when Eco doesn't answer his queries and the holographic decor of the ship is gone. An explosion has killed Eco. The drives and basic life support are still viable, handled by Memnon, the AP Eco superseded, but the luxuries are gone and the four-day trip could now take as long as four months. Captain Lydia Nicodemus is aware of Dyle's reputation and calls upon him to investigate the matter.

Before Dyle and Marym get very far along in their interviews, a powerful man hated by many is found beaten to death. The possibility occurs to Dyle that Eco might have been destroyed to rid the ship of her surveillance in order to commit murder unseen. Yet the brutality of the killing suggests both a crime of passion and of opportunity.

NARCISSUS blends sci-fi with mystery and keeps within the borders of those two genres; it's neither fantasy nor romantic suspense. The mystery is classic and cerebral. Dyle and Marym's relationship is a platonic friendship in which they complement each other. Where Dyle sees patterns in data, Marym is adept at reading people. She also has a background in law enforcement. The novel's sci-fi setting is plausible, and while it's limited to a ship, the descriptions are thorough and intriguing. The characterization of the secondary characters is well done, though a little more background on Dyle and Marym would have been welcome. They met on her home planet in SCARAB (published in 2004), but that was barely alluded to in NARCISSUS. I haven't read Mr. D'Ammassa's two previous futuristic mysteries, though I gather that they all take place in the same story world in which humans have colonized countless systems. The middle book (HAVEN, 2004), however, seems not to be a Sandar Dyle vehicle.

If you enjoy a solid mystery and imaginative speculative fiction, you are sure to enjoy NARCISSUS and may also be intrigued enough to look up SCARAB and HAVEN, both still available.

Jane Bowers