Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in multiple genres. Her books have sold over 35 million copies worldwide. Her novels in The Fey series are among her most popular. Even though the first seven books wrap up nicely, the Fey's huge fanbase wanted more. They inspired her to return to the world of The Fey and explore the only culture that ever defeated The Fey. With the fan support from a highly successful Kickstarter, Rusch began the multivolume Qavnerian Protectorate saga, which blends steampunk with Fey magic to come up with something completely new.
Rusch has received acclaim worldwide. She has written under a pile of pen names, but most of her work appears as Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Her short fiction has appeared in over 25 best of the year collections. Her Kris Nelscott pen name has won or been nominated for most of the awards in the mystery genre, and her Kristine Grayson pen name became a bestseller in romance. Her science fiction novels set in the bestselling Diving Universe have won dozens of awards and are in development for a major TV show. She also writes the Retrieval Artist sf series and several major series that mostly appear as short fiction.
To find out more about her work, go to her website, kriswrites.com.
A deadly conspiracy…
The Anniversary Day bombings on the Moon sent shockwaves throughout the Earth Alliance. No one knows who created the clones responsible and turned them into ruthless killers. No one knows where or when they'll strike next.
The bombings compel Earth Alliance Frontier Marshal Judita Gomez to launch an unauthorized investigation into a case from her past involving the murder of clones. An investigation that might cost Judita not only her career but the lives of her crew.
•Some writers can do it all…and Kristine Rusch is one of them. Not only has she won the Hugo Award, but she writes successfully across multiple genres, from science fiction to fantasy to mystery and more. A Murder Of Clones is part of her acclaimed and long-running Retrieval Artist series. In this space opera masterpiece, an Earth Alliance frontier marshal launches a dangerous investigation into a murder case connected to her past…and the catastrophic and enigmatic events of Anniversary Day. If you haven't read her work before, you're in for a real treat, the kind that introduces you to an author who might just change your life and the way you look at fiction and the world. If you have read Rusch's work in the past, you'll see that she never stops progressing in her relentless quest for excellence. This book is packed with tension, action, ideas, characterization, and surprises—so many goodies that you might need a second or third read just to wrap your head around them. Kristine Kathryn Rusch is the real deal, and A Murder Of Clones is the perfect introduction—or reintroduction—to her vibrant, staggeringly exciting, and thought-provoking universe. – Robert Jeschonek
"Fans of Rusch's Retrieval Artist universe will enjoy the expansion of the Anniversary Day story, with new characters providing more perspectives on its signature events, while newcomers will get a good introduction to the series."
– Publishers Weekly on A Murder of Clones"Filled with plenty of action, a deep cast and an intense philosophical ethical debate re what a human is…a fantastic thriller as the audience obtains new perspectives re the pivotal tragedy."
– Alternative Worlds II on A Murder of Clones"Rusch has pulled out all the stops on this one, and has created a new sub-genre of her own by inventing the intergalactic police procedural. … [she] is one of those Stephen King-style writers whose prodigious literary content output verges on almost legendary, which is a good thing for her fans."
– Astroguyz on A Murder of Clones"Readers of both police procedurals and science fiction are sure to enjoy this exciting series."
– San Francisco Review of Books on the Retrieval Artist Anniversary Day SagaFIFTEEN YEARS AGO
ONE
THE STENCH MADE her eyes water. Marshal Judita Gomez had a protect-strip over her mouth and nose, but the stench still got through. Something had died here. Something big, or many somethings big. The fact that the stench was so strong meant she would have to destroy her clothes. Nothing anyone had invented had been able to take the overpowering smell of corpses out of clothing.
At least nothing had done it to her satisfaction.
And perhaps nothing could have satisfied her. Every time she found a corpse, she felt the death viscerally. It became part of her. Perhaps it made sense, then, that it would seem to be part of her clothing as well.
She carefully moved several flat leaves, following the Eaufasse into the cluster of trees. She hadn't studied this culture at all, just responded to their call. So she touched what the Eaufasse touched and stepped where the Eaufasse stepped, which was hard, since the Eaufasse was the size of a thin twelve-year-old human child with extra-long legs and feet the size of fists.
Be extremely careful, she sent to her partners Kyle Washington and Shakir Rainger through their links. They'd been with the Earth Alliance Frontier Security Squad for years, but she wasn't sure they'd ever been in a situation like this before.
She wasn't sure she had ever been in a situation like this before.
The Eaufasse Emir had contacted the Earth Alliance about an enclave of humans hiding in the back country, near one of the Eaufasse's major cities. The Eaufasse was one of sixteen different sentient species on Epriccom, the habitable moon of an uninhabitable planet in a sector of space that the Earth Alliance dubbed the Frontier.
Ever since its formation, the Earth Alliance had given several sectors of space the Frontier designation. That meant most of the planets within the sector had applied for Earth Alliance membership—or were potential applicants for membership. Most sectors ended up becoming part of the Alliance, but every once in a while, the designation backfired, leaving the sector unapproved or with only a few Alliance planets, making it difficult for anyone from the Alliance to do business there.
And no matter what the Alliance said, what its propaganda dictated, the Alliance was always about business.
Gomez moved slowly. She loved her job, even at moments like this, moments when a single misplaced footstep could cause an interstellar incident. Her work was not the same from hour to hour, let alone day to day or week to week, and she saw parts of the known universe that most people never got to see.
She focused on the steps in the dirt before her, noting the strange plants that slid toward her feet. They seemed to move without wind or even being touched.
She'd been trained to watch for cues like that, things that might mean whatever she was looking at was sentient. She carefully avoided those plants, and she sent a message through the secured link to her deputies to do the same.
She didn't expect them to answer. One reason she had chosen Washington and Rainger for this mission was because they had the most experience of all her deputies in first-contact situations. Not that this was the first time humans had contact with the Eaufasse, but as far as she could tell, this was the first time that the Earth Alliance authorities—not diplomats—had in-person contact. And in-person contact was always different from contact through networks and links.
For one thing, it was infinitely more dangerous.
The Earth Alliance Frontier Security Squad had jurisdiction in any sector designated Frontier. But jurisdiction didn't mean they could override local laws. It simply meant that the FSS investigated, policed, and patrolled any Earth Alliance members who found their way to a Frontier planet.
And usually, the shadiest Earth Alliance members found their way to the outskirts of Earth Alliance territory, knowing that the FSS was underfunded and spread much too thin.
Gomez was deeply aware of that right now. She needed half a dozen deputies, not the two she always traveled with. The Emir believed that the human enclave was up to no good—at least that was how the translation program had filtered the Eaufasse's extremely complex language.
The relationship with the Eaufasse was so new that very few Eaufasse spoke Standard, and those who did didn't speak it very well.
One of those Standard-speaking Eaufasse was just outside the investigation area, listening in on a link hooked up to both Gomez and the Eaufasse tracker/police officer/military official who led the small group to the corpses.
The language barrier was still so complete that she wasn't sure what job the Eaufasse in front of her actually had.
Finally, the group reached a clearing. The ground dipped here in a bowl shape, and she knew without looking that the corpses were here. The nose never lied.
She held up a fist, so that her deputies stopped moving. They froze. They didn't dare do anything else. One wrong word, one wrong gesture, one wrong step, and the FSS officer could find herself on the wrong side of an alien judicial system.
There were exceptions for marshals. Exceptions were part of the agreements made with Frontier planets. But that didn't mean every single culture on those planets abided by the rules, nor did it mean that the Earth Alliance would always defend a marshal's behavior, particularly if some authority in the Alliance felt the marshal was out of line.
We would like to spread out along the rim of this small clearing, Gomez sent through the joint alien-marshal link. Do we have your permission to do so? If not, where should we stand?
The Eaufasse responded quickly. Of course, permission.
