Chris Brookmyre: PLACES IN THE DARKNESS Z1 [2018] paperback

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MCILVANNEY PRIZE FOR CRIME WRITING 2018

“This is as close to a city without crime as mankind has ever seen.”

Ciudad de Cielo is the ‘city in the sky’, a space station where hundreds of scientists and engineers work in earth’s orbit, building the colony ship that will one day take humanity to the stars.

When a mutilated body is found on the CdC, the eyes of the world are watching. Top-of the-class investigator, Alice Blake, is sent from Earth to team up with CdC’s Freeman – a jaded cop with more reason than most to distrust such planetside interference.

As the death toll climbs and factions aboard the station become more and more fractious, Freeman and Blake will discover clues to a conspiracy that threatens not only their own lives, but the future of humanity itself.

‘Excellent hardboiled noir . . . absolutely gripping’ SciFiNow

‘An ingenious crime story’ Scotsman

As smart as it is gripping, this is a terrifically engaging story from start to nerve-shredding finish Big Issue

‘Places in the Darkness is another corker of a murder mystery, [Brookmyre’s] new setting – with which he’s clearly having a whale of a time – giving him the opportunity to wow us with an even twistier twist than usual‘ Guardian