ABOVE SEA LEVEL

A man seeks vengeance for the death of his father in a climate change-ravaged Kansas in this dystopian sequel.

The year is 2048, and an ecologically devastated America has devolved into a loose association of regional republics. One year after his father was murdered, Daniel McFaul must return to his hometown of Dodge City and take control of the dead man’s restaurant—or forfeit his inheritance. He leaves his girlfriend, Sally Bergen, in Savannah, Georgia, but not before encountering a wealthy computer whiz named Hunter Houdini, who tells Daniel: “I’m the man who can help you find your father’s killer before he kills you.” Houdini’s plan is to recover the remains of the robot that lasered Mayor Plato McFaul dead in the middle of Wyatt Earp Boulevard and then promptly self-destructed. If they can find the robot, it can lead them to the cabal behind the assassination. Houdini has his own reasons for getting to the bottom of the crime: He suspects that these are the same men who kidnapped his daughter years ago. After Daniel survives an attempt on his life at his lawyer’s office, he and Houdini set up a sting inspired by the latter’s famous namesake. Daniel has his doubts about trusting Houdini—he can’t decide if the man is a fool, a con artist, or both. But he can’t rely on anyone else in Dodge, all of whom are connected to his father’s business or political interests in some way. Can Daniel live long enough to force his father’s killers to reveal themselves? And can his relationship with Sally survive the appearance of a beautiful new assistant manager at his father’s restaurant?

Congdon’s sequel to Heat 30:1 (2015) is a lighthearted mix of mystery, Western, and SF. The vision of the future he paints is simultaneously realistic and fantastical: People eat bugs; robots work as waiters; and airplanes take off and land via the use of magnets, but the restaurant business is still largely the same as it’s ever been. Despite all that has changed by 2048, the characters don’t speak that differently than they do today. In fact, they often sound like they might be from 1948: “Hey look, no slick arguments, no moral razzmatazz. If you’re going to confess to a crime, or to witnessing a crime, let me call the cops right now and do us both a favor.” At one point, Daniel even makes a casual reference to the Keystone Kops. The characters, setting, and mood are all highly enjoyable. This is an ecologically minded vision of the future that isn’t all doom and gloom. But the book’s pacing is a bit slow for a work of speculative fiction. Characters signal plans and developments long before they come to pass, which will weigh at times on readers’ patience. There aren’t quite as many surprises as one might expect, and everything winds up in a fairly predictable place. That said, the author has created a world that is pleasant to spend some time in and he’s populated it with people whom readers will like being around.

An entertaining mystery set in an intriguing near future.