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Queer sci-fi cozy mystery that takes no time at all to read.

4.5 ⭐ A storyteller must be a semi genius to make an entire world in less than 150 pages. In Murder by Memory we‘re on a ship traveling through space for a thousand year journey. They have a library which contains every person‘s memory that are re-added every time their body falls apart. Like any society, there is death and murder. A detective is woken from her chosen sleep to solve the newest murder isn‘t a murder.

My first SFF cozy murder mystery and it‘s a swift moving series opener featuring Dorothy Gentleman as a retired ship detective who finds herself abruptly returned to duty and a body (not hers) after an electrical storm causes damages to some memory books.

Looking forward to further adventures!

This novella is both science fiction and a cozy mystery (complete with a yarn shop) and it looks like it is the start of a new series. It was an enjoyable read, but I found it a bit confusing at times and had to really think about the plot and the parameters of life on the ship. I did love the premise though and look forward to more from the main character, so I will be happy to give the next one a chance. Thanks to Edelweiss+ for the ARC. 3.5/5

Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman 1), by Olivia Waite (2025)

Premise: On a space ship carrying a remnant of humanity to a new home, the ship‘s detective‘s mind wakes up in a stranger‘s body after years of dormancy — a stranger she quickly suspects may have committed a murder.
Cont.

I liked Dorothy Gentleman. She's a future Miss Marple. Loves knitting and solving crimes.

I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series.

#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView

Dorothy retired from being detective of a generational ship 2 years ago. So she‘s quite surprised to suddenly awaken in someone else‘s body to find the shipmind drunk and someone dead. This sci-fi mystery novella is fun and seems to be setting up lots of possibilities for future books while also resolving the mystery.

This novella, a cute cozy mystery set on a generation starship, was a nice read but I felt there was nothing to hold on to. At times, I felt intrigued by ideas Waite presented but they were always sacrificed for brevity (this is a scant 112 pages). It ends up just being cozy space vibes which is fine, I guess, but I've already forgotten what intrigued me about it...

4.5/5

On the interstellar ship, the Fairweather, death is temporary when a new body can be created and your memories restored from a copy in the library, But when detective Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn't hers and to news that there's just been a murder, it's clear that someone's figured out how to make a murder stick, and this new body might have something to do with it.

#netgalley

This was a cute, cozy locked-room murder mystery set on a spaceship where everyone's memories are kept in digital books so people can be placed into new bodies over the course of the long space journey. When the ship's detective awakens in a strange body with her memory book erased and a murder to solve, she has to figure out who's killing people by erasing them--permanently.

audiobook: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
ebook: Hazardous to a Duke's Heart by Sabrina Jeffries

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

Welcome to the Fairweather, a generation ship whose passengers regenerate new bodies when they die, or let their minds rest, literally, in the library. When a real death occurs, shrewd ship‘s detective Dorothy Gentleman finds herself back in a body—and it might be the murderer‘s. If you love to solve a mystery, this may not be for you, but as more of a sci-fi fan, I didn‘t mind letting Dorothy do all the hard work while I enjoyed the stellar view!