Titan Song is the third book in the Carter Archives SF police procedural series by Dan Stout. Released 6th April 2021 by Penguin Random House on their DAW imprint, it's 384 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a superbly written gritty noir procedural with a lot more. Dan Stout is a genuinely gifted writer (in whatever genre) and this book was a pleasure to read. The noir aspects of the writing would do credibly well in a side-by-side comparison with Hammett, Ellroy, and Dorothy Hughes. The plotting is finely tuned and well controlled. The characters (an ensemble cast) are distinct, easy to remember, and believably motivated.
There's a 70's cop vibe (pagers, disco, 8 track tapes) which plays along nicely with the extraterrestrial setting and humanoid alien species. In addition to the really solid mystery and police procedural aspects, it's set in an SF world where magic is real and not entirely well understood.
This is the third book in a series and in this case, there's quite a lot of continuity involved with character and plot development. It certainly *could* be read as a standalone, but it would be improved by being read in series order. My own review was delayed a while because I wanted to go chase down the other 2 currently extant books before finishing this one.
I would recommend this one to fans of noir procedurals even if they don't normally read SF. The writing is superb, the world building is meticulously detailed and the characters are believable. The denouement and resolution are clever and the whole is pleasantly twisty and engaging. There are even some humorous m0ments. For fans of SF mysteries, this is my best read in the genre for 2021 thus far.
Five stars. Superb.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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