CONSCIENCE OF THE BEAGLE

Interstellar detective yarn from the author of two excellent novels involving aliens (Cold Allies, 1992; Brother Termite, p. 896). Major Dyle Holloway and his team—Szabo the psychic, demolitions expert Arne, and the humanoid robot Beagle—are sent by Home Force of Earth to planet Tennyson, a religious dictatorship now enduring a series of terrorist bombings in which prominent scientists and dissidents have been killed. Handicapped by guilt over his failure to solve the murder of his wife, Lila, Holloway is further inhibited by knowing that one of his team is a spy; neither does he trust Vanderslice, Tennyson's Minister for Science. Holloway questions Tal Hendrix, wife of one of the dead dissidents, and initiates a sexual relationship with her; Tal tells him that Vanderslice is the head of the secret police. Arne is killed by a bomb; Szabo, having lost his psychic powers, confesses to being the spy, and commits suicide—but who is causing the explosions, and why? Beagle's investigations will prove crucial, as Holloway discovers why, and by whom, his wife was murdered. Told in a creamy-smooth first-person, present tense: an altogether satisfyingly complex if occasionally overwrought puzzler. Anthony's meteoric rise to the novelistic front ranks is thoroughly deserved.