Picture this: a massive asteroid is careening toward Earth and only one person has the technical know-how in order to save the planet. Then, fast-forward sixty some odd years, to where the world has been saved! Mission accomplished! But now the scientist that saved the world feels threatened, so, naturally, she reaches out to the person who ran her security while she was saving the world. Only problem is, she’s dead when he arrives. Thankfully, in the years following saving the world, our MC (who is unnamed the entire story…) became a detective, so he should be able to handle this, right? Well, sort of. For a book featuring a trained detective, he acts more like a private investigator. A really grumpy, gloomy, cynical middle-aged PI who often wallows in self-pity, but, you know, still a PI. This book sounded so interesting! But I don’t think it delivered on what the synopsis promised, which was a letdown.

“Naked in Death” is my first J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts book, but I’ve been really digging futuristic crime and mystery books that feature actual cops and detectives, rather than amateur sleuths, that I just had to read this! Eve Dallas is a gritty detective who does not stop until she gets justice for her victims. In this case, professional sex workers who are brutally murdered by a client, their last moments recorded and sent to the police. It’s an old-fashioned crime on the backdrop of a futuristic world with flying cars, and where real coffee is a luxury. But for all the developments that this city has, the biggest issue they face is that their advances allow for all DNA to be purged easily. So a violent crime that could have been solved quickly, turns into a mystery and a race to solve before more women end up dead. But the crime itself tends to become secondary to the romance that quickly—and I mean QUICKLY—unfolds between Eve and a potential suspect… Which, and this is probably the first time I’ll say this, would have made this book better if the lead was an amateur sleuth instead of a detective.

After the events of “Artificial Condition”, everyone’s favorite failed mass murdering robot is determined to find the evidence his original crew of favorite humans needs to bring down GrayCris, the corporation that so rudely tried to have them killed. But Murderbot doesn’t actually want to go back and face its humans. It’s much happier helping from afar, with no more interaction with stupid humans thank you very much! Which of course is a plan that goes up in flames in a spectacular way very early on its quest to get answers for Dr. Mensah.

“The Lane Betrayal” is a cat and mouse race through the past as Mark Lane transports his family—his wife, two daughters and two sons—to 1865, just as the American Civil War is ending in order to hide from the billion-dollar corporation Mark has betrayed. Except it’s not really a betrayal, Mark discovered the nefarious plot of the CEO and in order to prevent that man from going into the past and changing key pieces of history in evil ways, Mark absconds with the devices first. The Lane’s have planned this escape for months, and so they leave for 1865 with a plan and the materials they need to blend into their new era, and for the most part they succeed! Which made this story relatively tension free until the last 30% of the novel.

I read “Artificial Condition” in a day as another buddy read. After “All Systems Red” it was impossible for me and my friend not to want to pick the second book up in the Murderbot Diaries immediately. It was a fantastic decision! Even though Murderbot’s favorite humans from the first book are not in this one, new characters more than make up for it, especially in a story that shows how much more “human” Murderbot is becoming. Honestly, for a book and premise primarily around robots and constructs, I was not expecting this many feels.