The Great American Betrayal is the second volume in an SF/PI series by Scott Stein. Released 13th Sept 2022, it's 220 pages and is available in paperback 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 such a fun romp. It's witty and irreverent and clever. There's a solid beating heart under the glib exterior - a good character driven plot with a well constructed and quite competent mystery inside the central working mechanism.
Although it's not at all derivative, there's a definite Douglas Adams - Grant/Naylor vibe about the whole. The author is adept at the same type of zany off-the-wall humor and I could absolutely -hear- some of the voices from Red Dwarf up in my head during this read and it was absolutely delightful (and nostalgic). The use of footnotes is Pratchett-esque and again, will give readers who love the aforementioned giants of the genre the warm fuzzies.
This is a winner. It's short and very very funny. I especially love Arjay as PI Harken's Dr. Watson. The fact that Arjay is a sentient coffee-bot makes nary a whit of difference. Despite being the second book, it works perfectly well as a standalone. I sincerely hope this will be a continuing series.
Four and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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