The best science fiction detective novels

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been a science fiction nerd, but detective novels were my first love. When the two blend together well, I’m hooked. I’ve had the privilege of working for a game company where I got to flex my story telling muscles. Writing novels is an overlapping passion of mine where meticulous plots and rich characters are given breath and purpose. When I get to place these inside a science fiction universe, my hope is to draw in my readers and give them the same satisfaction I enjoy when writing.


I wrote...

The Seraph Engine

By Gerhard Gehrke,

Book cover of The Seraph Engine

What is my book about?

After fleeing River City with a body full of hardware he doesn’t own, ex-cop Miles Kim seeks refuge from Meridian Corporation in the wasteland town of Seraph. But Miles has a head full of secrets he can’t access. 

All too soon, he learns his former masters aren’t ready to release an old soldier like him so easily.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Last Policeman

Gerhard Gehrke Why did I love this book?

I loved the thought of the world ending while a cop decides to spend his final hours solving a mystery. The plot kept me hooked from the get-go, and I enjoyed the contrast of society falling apart around the protagonist while he doggedly pursues the murderer.

The sense of frustration and isolation made this a page-turner.

By Ben H. Winters,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Last Policeman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In THE LAST POLICEMAN, Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Ben H. Winters, offers readers something they've never seen before: A police procedural set on the brink of an apocalypse. What's the point in solving murders when we're going to die soon, anyway? Hank Palace, a homicide detective in Concord, New Hampshire, asks this question every day. Most people have stopped doing whatever it is they did before the asteroid 2011L47J hovered into view. Stopped selling real estate; stopped working at hospitals; stopped slinging hash or driving cabs or trading high-yield securities. A lot of folks spend…


Book cover of Ubik

Gerhard Gehrke Why did I love this book?

Back when psychics were all the rage in science fiction, this novel takes it to the next level with a mystery that kept me guessing until the last reveal.

This novel takes the typical detective tropes and adds world-bending twists that so many science fiction stories have copied. One of my favorites and a great entry into Philip K. Dick’s work.

By Philip K. Dick,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Ubik as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A classic science fiction tale of artifical worlds by one of the great American writers of the 20th century

Glen Runciter is dead.

Or is he?

Someone died in the explosion orchestrated by his business rivals, but even as his funeral is scheduled, his mourning employees are receiving bewildering messages from their boss. And the world around them is warping and regressing in ways which suggest that their own time is running out.

If it hasn't already.

Readers minds have been blown by Ubik:

'Sheer craziness, a book defying any straightforward synopsis . . . a unique time travel adventure…


Book cover of Leviathan Wakes

Gerhard Gehrke Why did I love this book?

Come for the space opera, stay for the detective story.

The heart of this first entry into the Expanse series is a missing person case, and I was instantly engaged with the path this plotline took. I found the book has more facets and depth than the TV series (as per usual) and was drawn into the detective’s growing attachment to the missing woman as he grows to understand her fate.

Great science fiction world-building without the flab!

By James S. A. Corey,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked Leviathan Wakes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Humanity has colonized the planets - interstellar travel is still beyond our reach, but the solar system has become a dense network of colonies. But there are tensions - the mineral-rich outer planets resent their dependence on Earth and Mars and the political and military clout they wield over the Belt and beyond. Now, when Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war. Attacked by a stealth ship belonging to the Mars fleet, Holden must find a way to uncover the motives behind the…


Book cover of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Gerhard Gehrke Why did I love this book?

I love Adams, but his Dirk Gently books get skipped too often. I find the main character’s situations and solutions infinitely fun.

The book is a classic and kept me reading while trying to figure out what exactly is going on, as there are so many hidden jokes. A re-read is most rewarding! I’ve never encountered so many science principles stuffed between the pages of a comedy.

By Douglas Adams,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Douglas Adams, the legendary author of one of the most beloved science fiction novels of all time, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, comes a wildly inventive novel of ghosts, time travel, and one detective’s mission to save humanity from extinction.

DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
We solve the whole crime
We find the whole person
Phone today for the whole solution to your problem
(Missing cats and messy divorces a specialty)

Douglas Adams, the “master of wacky words and even wackier tales” (Entertainment Weekly) once again boggles the mind with a completely unbelievable story of ghosts, time travel,…


Book cover of Lock In

Gerhard Gehrke Why did I love this book?

I’ve read a lot of John Scalzi. He’s hit and miss for me, but besides his Old Man’s War, I loved Lock In. Here are some fresh takes on technology progression and the impact they would make on cops and criminals.

The case here feels like a classic hardboiled mystery turned on its head. I found it a very satisfying read and want more of this from the author. The extra content in the audiobook is also very good.

By John Scalzi,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Lock In as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A blazingly inventive near-future thriller from the best-selling, Hugo Award-winning John Scalzi.

Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.

A quarter of a…


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Captain James Heron First Into the Fray: Prequel to Harry Heron Into the Unknown of the Harry Heron Series

By Patrick G. Cox, Janet Angelo (editor),

Book cover of Captain James Heron First Into the Fray: Prequel to Harry Heron Into the Unknown of the Harry Heron Series

Patrick G. Cox Author Of Ned Farrier Master Mariner: Call of the Cape

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

On the expertise I claim only a deep interest in history, leadership, and social history. After some thirty-six years in the fire and emergency services I can, I think, claim to have seen the best and the worst of human behaviour and condition. History, particularly naval history, has always been one of my interests and the Battle of Jutland is a truly fascinating study in the importance of communication between the leader and every level between him/her and the people performing whatever task is required.  In my own career, on a very much smaller scale, this is a lesson every officer learns very quickly.

Patrick's book list on the Battle of Jutland

What is my book about?

Captain Heron finds himself embroiled in a conflict that threatens to bring down the world order he is sworn to defend when a secretive Consortium seeks to undermine the World Treaty Organisation and the democracies it represents as he oversees the building and commissioning of a new starship.

When the Consortium employs an assassin from the Pantheon, it becomes personal.

Captain James Heron First Into the Fray: Prequel to Harry Heron Into the Unknown of the Harry Heron Series

By Patrick G. Cox, Janet Angelo (editor),

What is this book about?

The year is 2202, and the recently widowed Captain James Heron is appointed to stand by his next command, the starship NECS Vanguard, while she is being built. He and his team soon discover that they are battling the Consortium, a shadowy corporate group that seeks to steal the specs for the ship’s new super weapon. The Consortium hires the Pantheon, a mysterious espionage agency, to do their dirty work as they lay plans to take down the Fleet and gain supreme power on an intergalactic scale. When Pantheon Agent Bast and her team kidnap Felicity Rowanberg, a Fleet agent…


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