Six top mysteries set on generation ships

Molly Odintz is the managing editor for CrimeReads and the editor of Austin Noir. She grew up in Austin and worked as a bookseller before becoming a Very Professional Internet Person. She lives in central Texas with her cat, Fritz Lang.

At CrimeReads Odintz tagged six mysteries set on generation ships. One title on the list:

Mahmud El Sayed, The Republic of Memory

It is a universal truth that any functionary on a spaceship ship sufficiently well-placed will be susceptible to bribery, especially in a ship indulgently outfitted and gloriously inspired by the Ottoman Empire. In The Republic of Memory, gleefully corrupt officials, clever bootleggers, piratical smugglers, and nascent revolutionaries populate a generation ship (the second on this list) just over halfway to its destination, and beginning to crack at the seams. When a seemingly preventable disaster sends the ship’s factions into disarray, a former fighter gets assigned to investigate the accident as sabotage, recruiting plenty of unlikely allies on the way to the even more unlikely truth.

Read about another mystery on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Republic of Memory.

Q&A with Mahmud El Sayed.

--Marshal Zeringue