Synopsis
Robert “Rocky” Mountain, a private investigator from Mars, got the kind of job he loved: taking down a crooked politician. It was back on Commerce Station, his old haunt, but he thought he could slip in and out. Nice and clean.
But then his ex, Penny, shows up offering the kind of job he hated: personal. He would’ve turned her down. He should’ve, but that was before he saw what they’d done to her apartment. Her life. Her. And he found that he could not help but mix pleasure with business, all into one explosive cocktail.
So Rocky calls in his team from Mars to help. Kershaw, his security expert, who thought a good weekend was hanging off the side of a building. Kim, his hard-nosed assistant, who’ll make sure he charges Penny expenses and overtime.
However, the more Rocky investigates, the more everything is just a little too perfect, and he starts to worry if he’s been playing with trouble.
Review
TROUBLE WORE RED by Chris Lewis is an interesting concept that I don’t think I’ve ever encountered before: a cozy cyberpunk novel. Indeed, one might argue the concept is inherently contradictory but as a fan of cyberpunk, I have to say that I think this is definitely in the genre: class issues, moral ambiguity, noir crime drama, and science fiction where the tech has gotten better but the world’s ethics hasn’t evolved.
The big difference is this is far down on the violence and these particular protagonists are as well-settled as you might be in the setting without being super rich. It’s less about the next big heist than looking back and noticing where your relationships have gone when you hit middle age. You might not view it as punk but post-punk in that respect as your angry youth gives way to melancholy.
The premise is Robert “Rocky” Mountain is a private detective on Commerce Station past Mars in the Sol system. He’s managed to find himself a somewhat cozy living helping the police (boo! hiss!) entrap politicians in white collar crimes or parole violations while taking kickbacks from their political enemies. It’s a unique way of hitting back at the man but pretty effective as well as lucrative for his needs. It is just after his latest case that he gets contacted by his old flame, Penny, who has somehow gone from being an entertainer at the deLux luxury nightclub to its owner in the time since they’ve broken up. There’s been a minor break-in with only some knick-knacks stolen and Penny wants to hire Rocky to solve this mystery.
Rocky privately suspects that the job is just an excuse to reconnect as it is a lot of money for what seems to be very easy work. What follows is a bunch of investigations, interviews, and gumshoe work to determine not only who was responsible for the break-in but also the source of Penny’s immense success. Rocky must navigate his complicated feelings toward Penny even as he also tries to figure out if he cares about the potential dark side to her wealth. It’s an interesting twist on the private detective with a heart of gold as the fact its ambiguous which side of the decisions that Rocky will fall adds to the story.
As stated, this is as cozy as they come in terms of cyberpunk stories. No one is breaking out the pistols and chainsaws with the majority of problems solved with talking. The stakes are also kept reasonably low with the question being whether Robert will end up destroying his remaining relationships over anything more substantial. I like this even though I wouldn’t want it to be every cyberpunk novel as the contrast to others is all the stronger with so many in the genre being depressingly nihilistic.
Ultimately, Trouble Wore Red is a novel about the passing of time and the changes as well as compromises needed to make life what you need. A lot of the individuals involved here made a choice between friendships and “selling out” but the meaning of both. After all, if your friends abandon you when you get rich then were they your friends and what is selling out if you need to do what it takes to survive? Overall, I liked this book and hope that it gets a sequel. If not, it’s a nice little standalone.
