Clean (Mindspace Investigations, #1)

Sep 05, 2012 Mandi Schreiner rated it 4 of 5 stars

This world is a dystopian world, kind of light on the sci-fi. Years ago, (in recent enough memory for people to still remember) there was a huge Tech War, where super-viruses split people’s minds from the inside, resulting in a huge death toll. Half a century later, no one trusts computer chips. So it may take days to send one email and the now small web is regarded with fear and much respect. Not to say there are no advancements in this world. They have some cars that fly and there are telepath...more This world is a dystopian world, kind of light on the sci-fi. Years ago, (in recent enough memory for people to still remember) there was a huge Tech War, where super-viruses split people’s minds from the inside, resulting in a huge death toll. Half a century later, no one trusts computer chips. So it may take days to send one email and the now small web is regarded with fear and much respect. Not to say there are no advancements in this world. They have some cars that fly and there are telepaths and telekinetics. Told in our hero’s point of view, he is a Level 8 telepath, which means he is really strong and also has precog abilities. Due to an extremely bad drug habit when he was younger, he was kicked out of the Telepaths’ Guild. He now works as a consultant for the police department in Atlanta, brought in to interview suspects in custody that won’t crack with other investigators. He can get into their mind, make suspects admit guilt and has a high close rate. Due to his drug addiction, he is a regular member of Narcotics Anonymous and meets with his sponsor often. It is a daily struggle for him to stay clean.

His ‘partner’ for lack of a better word (he is only contracted with the police department) is detective Isabella Cherabino. She goes by Cherabino for most of the book so I’ll call her that in the review. She is a die-hard detective, a workaholic and puts up with the hero’s attitude, even though she is often exasperated. Currently she has a string of six dead bodies, with no clues to go off of. Having a gut feeling that they are all related, they pull our hero onto the scene of the most recent murder to see if he can gather any clues. He can go into what’s called Mindspace, kind of blocking everything out around him, and picking up the mental residue of what was recently left behind at whatever place he is at. So as he stands in this alley where a person was murdered, he can tell if the killers had used ‘Ability’ or some sort of telepathic means. From here the investigation goes to some dark places and our hero and Cherabino fight to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.

I really enjoyed this book. Our hero and his relationship with Cherabino reminds me a lot of Harry Dresden and Murphy, as he consults with her on cases. The chemistry between is very similar. There isn’t romance in this book per se, but you know eventually these two have to explore that little flicker of interest they have. We learn a lot about Cherabino and her past too. She is a big character in this book. Our hero has such strong telepathic abilities, he is able to be in Cherabino’s head…a lot. Much to her frustration. He often answers questions before she verbally asks them, and she punches him in the face more than once for his interference. She is a tough cookie and I really enjoyed her role in this book.

Our hero struggles with drugs and I love how it is portrayed in here. He thinks about his drug of choice, Satin (a drug he experimented with the Guild, until he became too addicted and started his downhill slide into a complete drug addiction) all the time. Daily. Probably hourly. He has been clean for six years, except for one time when he fell off the wagon. Because of that one time, he no longer directly receives his paycheck, nor has any personal belonging he can barter for drugs. Not even a bed – just a worthless cot that no one would want. This is how desperate his situation is. He calls his Narcotics Anonymous mentor daily, and we see him interact with him a lot in this book. He takes it very seriously.

He made me come up with a list of three things I was grateful for every week – I had to tell him three brand-new things at our usual weekly meeting, or he’d give me this look, all disappointed. And the feeling I got from his mind was worse, like “ungrateful” was an insult of the worst order. So, I studied. I thought. And for six years running now – not counting the two weeks I’d missed the last time off the wagon – every week I had three new things. This week I was having trouble.
He really looks to his mentor for approval. Almost childlike (and there really isn’t anything else childlike about our hero. He is definitely all man).

I really think his despair at certain points of this book is done really well. It brings a certain humility to our hero. He is this all so powerful telepath, who has hit rock bottom and is learning to rebuild his life. He is learning how to apologize, and how to work through his depression and the pressure of his abilities, to lead a better life. Reading it you know he is a good guy and you root for him to overcome his addiction.

This book moves at a steady pace. I will say the beginning is a little heavy with the world building, and it took me awhile to get a grasp of what exactly our hero is capable of and what the world consisted of. But once we got going, I didn’t want to stop reading. At the end of the book, I reflect back and see our hero as someone who has much to give – both professionally to the police with his abilities, and emotionally one day to Cherabino (at least I can hope). We have started with him on a journey of self-discovery that I found really fun. Looking forward to book two next spring.

Rating: B.(less)

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Sep 15, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

I won this book in a recent giveaway. I really enjoyed this book. It is a cross of detective novel and science fiction. It takes place in Atlanta in a not so distant future. It has interesting charters and plenty of action. I live in the south and have been to Atlanta several times. It is a refreshing change for the book to be set there instead of New York or Los Angeles like so many other books. I am looking forward to reading more books in this new series.

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Apr 29, 2013 Owlcat Mountain added it

I don't use star ratings, so please read my review!

(Description nicked from B&N.com.)

“I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars. My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild...more I don't use star ratings, so please read my review!

(Description nicked from B&N.com.)

“I used to work for the Telepath’s Guild before they kicked me out for a drug habit that wasn’t entirely my fault. Now I work for the cops, helping Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino put killers behind bars. My ability to get inside the twisted minds of suspects makes me the best interrogator in the department. But the normals keep me on a short leash. When the Tech Wars ripped the world apart, the Guild stepped up to save it. But they had to get scary to do it—real scary. Now the cops don’t trust the telepaths, the Guild doesn’t trust me, a serial killer is stalking the city—and I’m aching for a fix. But I need to solve this case. Fast. I’ve just had a vision of the future: I’m the next to die.”

When I first picked up this novel, I thought it was going to be a case of an unlikeable narrator and that the main thing I’d need to be watching for was whether or not the author made me like him in spite of his issues. That’s not quite the case here. The main character (unnamed until the last page of the book) is no longer using drugs, and he’s more than two years clean, but he still craves a fix through most of the book. The author keeps this from being too intrusive by making it clear that the case he’s working on is stressing him to the utmost, which is the kind of situation sure to test the resolve of any addict.

I found the relationship between the main character and Detective Cherabino to be one of the more interesting and unusual ones that I’ve seen. A lot of this is because readers aren’t coming into the relationship on the ground floor; it’s stated in the story that the two have known each other for at least five years. While it’s odd to not see the development of a relationship that’s so central to the story, it’s also a refreshing change to see a pair that doesn’t fall head over heels for each other after only knowing each other for a few days. These two have a history, and even though we haven’t seen that history for ourselves, it’s easy to see that it’s the foundation for everything in the story.

The worldbuilding is an interesting mix of high-tech and low-tech. They have things like flying cars and computers, but the Tech Wars, which haven’t been gone into in much detail, have made people afraid of technology that’s too complicated. Many functions that used to be taken care of by technology are now overseen by the Guild—the gap left by the Tech Wars is a natural place for a powerful organization to move in and take over, and it doesn’t feel like the Guild is in a place where it wouldn’t naturally be. What I hope to see in future novels is more backstory on where the telepaths came from and how they came to be known to the rest of humanity.

I liked the way police procedure works in this story given the existence of telepaths. The main character is in an interesting position: there’s a lot that he can do to find evidence with his talents, but he’s not trusted due to his past drug use. He does sometimes work with Guild telepaths, and that brings up the chains of evidence and proof that are required. Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about how police gather evidence of crimes, but the mix of real life and fiction in this novel seems plausible to me.

Clean is a novel that delivers a good story and promises to unveil some intriguing mysteries in the future. There’s plenty that’s unique in the intersection of technology and telepathy, and it creates a full and nuanced world. I’m looking forward to the next novel in this series.

This review originally appeared on Owlcat Mountain on April 29, 2013.(less)

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Apr 23, 2013 Nick Mccavitt rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm a big science fiction fan which almost inevitably means that when I pick up a book it's a science fiction book. This book, however, was a bit of a departure for me as telepaths, telekinetics, and otherwise radically minded individuals haven't featured prominently in any work of fiction I've looked at since the last time I watched Babylon Five. I was surprised, therefore, to find this book growing on me due to 2 things; the central character and the world he moves through.

The central characte...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Text Addict rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, psi, georgia

I've held this review for over a week now, because I've been trying to explain to myself why it's a five-star book to me. All I've got is this: give me a character who grits their teeth and pushes on through internal and external devastation, back them up with decent world-building and secondary characters and plot, and I am yours, authors. Write more books for me, please.

Our hero - I can't remember or even easily find his name, a hazard of the first-person narrative - regularly attends Narcoti...more I've held this review for over a week now, because I've been trying to explain to myself why it's a five-star book to me. All I've got is this: give me a character who grits their teeth and pushes on through internal and external devastation, back them up with decent world-building and secondary characters and plot, and I am yours, authors. Write more books for me, please.

Our hero - I can't remember or even easily find his name, a hazard of the first-person narrative - regularly attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings. He used to be middle class, a professor at a private college; now he's a county police department consultant.

The overall setting is The Future; this is, in essence, an SF police procedural. Our hero isn't actually a cop, though - he's a former professional telepath college professor in disgrace (having turned into a junkie). So actually it's an SF police procedural with the whole panoply of traditional psi abilities.

The geographic location was a bit of a problem for me, since I hear "DeKalb County" and think Chicago - and the fact that there's a DeKalb County in four other states doesn't help. Adding "Decatur" doesn't really help, either, because there are probably dozens of places called Decatur in the US (one of which is in Illinois). So I kept wondering why it was so hot in Chicago ... Eventually I managed to nail down that we're talking about Metro Atlanta. (But not really Atlanta, because Decatur is a separate city.) This is by way of saying that the author's really very good efforts to identify the place were hampered, for me, by the fact that I know too much geography and too little about Georgia.

At any rate, in this future U.S., advanced computer technology is highly restricted and regarded with paranoia because it wasn't very long ago that millions of people died in the Tech Wars because of their dependence on (and physical connection with) computer-enhanced gadgets that were under "supervirus" attack. Which I think is a clever way of creating an SF setting in which technology doesn't solve all the problems almost instantly. And these issues with tech are woven into the story with aplomb.

There is a Telepaths' Guild - now there's an old psi SF trope. This one was apparently instrumental in holding advanced-region civilization together during and after the Tech Wars and has an uneasy relationship with the regular government, not to mention regular civilians. It's a bastion of wealth and privilege if you're (a useful) part of it. Interesting creative bit: Telepaths are an essential part of getting artificial glands and organs to work with the bodies they're put into. Psi abilities are integral to the plot in lots of ways,too; they're not just interesting SFnal window dressing.

The story revolves around a series of peculiar murders, which (this being a novel) winds up involving the Guild, illegal tech, and our hero's personal history. I think it should've been a little less closely tied to our hero's personal history - it ties together a little *too* closely for my taste - but that's not a fatal flaw, in my opinion. The investigation plot is well done, with a few believable mistakes and misunderstandings keeping things from being resolved too soon.

But for me, it's the main character and his fraught interactions with, well, everybody (including himself) that hold the book together. Some people (a lot of people) are rather hostile to telepaths; his assigned partner has troubles of her own and tolerates him as long as he's getting the job done; he has an ex-wife; and he has to work hard to stay clean.

I did put the book down for a while, because I hate when visions of the future are unalterable. But I had to know what happened, and it turned out that the future *did* change somewhat because our hero knew about it and tried to get people to try to avoid it.

Gritty (I balk at excess grit)? Probably a bit melodramatic (especially toward the end)? Yup. But what can I say, "the only way out is through" is my favorite theme in literature, and the rest of the book supports it just fine, thanks. (less)

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Apr 05, 2013 Mark Wallace rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

Three or four times I had to close the book and decide whether or not to continue. The protagonist is an addict and Hughes depicts addiction in a way that is occasionally too raw and honest to endure.

That said, I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Hughes does a fantastic job of building a world that is complicated enough to be interesting, genuinely new, and filled with both dangers and opportunities. Because of the complexity, there is the occasional need for one character to explain things...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

This is actually my second time reading Clean but the first time writing it up. I tried this book for the first time shortly after it came out but I wasn’t able to blog about it. But I really liked Clean so I figured it was time to re-read it and actually remember to post about it! So here goes…

Clean is set in a dark, not-terribly-distant future in Atlanta. In the aftermath of the Tech Wars, people don’t trust technology anymore so almost everything is back to the trusted pen-and-paper methodolo...more This is actually my second time reading Clean but the first time writing it up. I tried this book for the first time shortly after it came out but I wasn’t able to blog about it. But I really liked Clean so I figured it was time to re-read it and actually remember to post about it! So here goes…

Clean is set in a dark, not-terribly-distant future in Atlanta. In the aftermath of the Tech Wars, people don’t trust technology anymore so almost everything is back to the trusted pen-and-paper methodology. The only reason the world survived the Tech Wars? The Telepaths’ Guild stepped up and saved everyone, by being super scary. (Clean doesn’t have a lot of details but I think my imagination did a pretty good job of figuring it out.) As a result, the Guild has the right to self-government but no one trusts them that much. The main character ofClean was a shining star in the Guild until he got hooked on Satin, a fancy drug, and lost his job and was kicked out of the Guild. Now, he works for the local police department with his partner Detective Isabella Cherbino, solving crimes and working the interrogation room, trying to resist the urge to fall back into his addiction. He doesn’t have any friends from his previous life but he’s working hard to make the most of the opportunity he has, even when that means going up against the Guild.

In some ways, the worldbuilding reminded me of the Atlanta we see in the Kate Daniels from Ilona Andrews, but I think that’s mostly because both series are set in Atlanta and have some interesting implications for use of technology. In any case, it’s meant to be a complimentary statement, not a negative one.

Hughes populates her world with some great characters, aside from the leading man. I really loved Cherbino. She’s tough, smart, and awesome, and her backstory is really poignant. I loved how we got peeks into her mind thanks to the main character’s telepathy. The other cops are also quite interesting, and I hope we get to know them more in future novels. I was also really intrigued by Kara, a Guild member who we meet partway through the novel. I won’t say too much about her since I don’t want to give away the game but I do hope to learn more about her, and her relationship with our intrepid main character, if that’s possible.

You may have noticed that I keep saying “he” instead of using the main character’s name. Well, that’s because he goes through nearly the entire book without anyone using it and I don’t want to spoil it for you. It’s an interesting way to write and it works because Clean is told from a first-person point of view. But if you’re like me, you’re going to spend a great deal of time wondering just what the heck his name is while you’re going through.

Clean is a fantastic debut novel and and I’m really interested in spending more time in this world. Thankfully, Sharp, the next novel, is right around the corner, and there’s an e-novella called Payoff that’s available now. You can be sure I’ll be on the lookout for how many times the main character’s name is used in this one.

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Feb 11, 2013 Sabina Bundgaard rated it 3 of 5 stars

I need to explain something about this book first so you will understand what I’m talking about.
Some time ago there was a terrible war; the Tech Wars. Humans had been working to close to technology, incorporated it not only into their everyday life, but into their minds too. We are not told exactly what happened, and to tell you the truth I don’t think I would like to know. Too scary. Anyhow… Because of these Tech Wars, (internet) technology is not considered safe and very few are allowed to ha...more I need to explain something about this book first so you will understand what I’m talking about.
Some time ago there was a terrible war; the Tech Wars. Humans had been working to close to technology, incorporated it not only into their everyday life, but into their minds too. We are not told exactly what happened, and to tell you the truth I don’t think I would like to know. Too scary. Anyhow… Because of these Tech Wars, (internet) technology is not considered safe and very few are allowed to have computers or links into the net.

To save humanity something called the Guild stepped in and played Hero, but it came with a price. The Guild is humans, but they have an Ability of some sort. For some it’s telepathy, others empathy. The Guild is pretty much untouchable because of the deal they made to safe humanity during the Tech Wars. The Guild is a school and workplace. The ones that show possibility of Ability are trained there to control – and use -their Ability and when they’re done many of them stays and works with the Guild. At the same time there are many, many rules that you have to follow when you’re a part of the Guild. If you don’t… well, bad things happen, you’re lucky if they only kick you out.

In all this mess we meet our Hero. He’s an ex-Guild, kicked out for a drug abuse (Satin) and is now working with the cops (mostly Isabella Cherabino) to get the bad guys behind bars and trying to stay clean. Oh and he’s a very good telepath. Sometimes he needs to remember that some people like their privacy. :-)

Cherabino is currently working on a case where several people has been killed and dumped like garbage with almost no injuries, other than some brain-damage. The police can’t catch this guy or get a decent lead and they’re getting desperate. So desperate that they’re throwing our telepath out into the field to see if he can discover something they’ve missed. And this is where all the fun starts and where our telepath need to keep his head straight, or he just might pay the ultimate price for being at the right place at the wrong time.

It took me a couple of chapters to get into this book, namely because of all the new info there was about Ability, Tech Wars, Satin and much more. But when I got a hang of it, and understood what was happening, the book really rolled for me.

It’s an entire new world to discover, were they have something as amazing as flying cars, but what we consider simple technology today – like internet – are pretty much banned, because of their fear of what happened in the Tech Wars.

I loved to see how human our maincharacter was. To follow his struggle to stay clean, off Satin. How hard he fought to not give in and the close calls he had sometimes. I liked that we got to see this story from his POV with everything that entails – remember, he’s a telepath and can go in and out of people heads. It was fun to see how he sometimes misunderstood things, because he got a glimpse here and there from people minds. It really can’t be easy. Especially when you’re feared because of something you’re born with. Alex Hughes caught this conflict and showed it beautifully, it tore at my heart.

This is a great book and if you’re into reading something different, something new, this is definitely a book you should get your hands on!!
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Jan 16, 2013 Janny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, urban-fantasy, great-writing, interesting-universe

I always love it when genres blend together because you're never sure what to expect. It's kind of like being thrown head-first into a new universe without a map and being told you're on your own.

One thing I wanted to mention is that I rarely get to read anything by female authors - I'm not avoiding them or anything, it just happens since I mostly read noir. Now, I assumed that the author was male because of the name, so I figured, awesome, not a lot of guys write urban fantasy. So I can't belie...more I always love it when genres blend together because you're never sure what to expect. It's kind of like being thrown head-first into a new universe without a map and being told you're on your own.

One thing I wanted to mention is that I rarely get to read anything by female authors - I'm not avoiding them or anything, it just happens since I mostly read noir. Now, I assumed that the author was male because of the name, so I figured, awesome, not a lot of guys write urban fantasy. So I can't believe I managed to read the whole book and not pick up on any vibe. I can almost always tell a female author voice from a male one, but nope. I had no freakin idea. I mean I thought it was a tad weird seeing a bit of romance thrown in there, but that happens in a lot of books. So major props to the lady author for having the proper, guy-like writing voice.

I'm not really sure how to rate this novel since it's such a jumble of genres. I mean am I supposed to take away points because it dragged along at the beginning? Urban fantasy books aren't supposed to, but this is also a detective/crime sort of book where you have to step back and analyze stuff. To be honest, this is probably why a few of the readers here didn't exactly enjoy the book. It takes a bit of time to sink into this universe. I for one really got into it around the half mark, so I guess the secret is to hang in there. The writing is pretty damn good. I was actually impressed by how easy it was to visualize what the author was describing when it came to the whole abstract world of the mind. Very cool stuff.

There are some things that bothered me, though. The book tends to vomit information at you when it thinks you're not looking, and then acts like you're supposed to already know what's going on. Shame on you, book, that's not how you handle exposition. Luckily, you can get away without reading absolutely everything.

The action is pretty sparse and sometimes cliche. I just thought the cast was too nice. I mean, yeah, they're mostly cops and have to follow protocol, but still. I was really looking forward to a scene where our protagonist could say "I don't give a damn about your rules" and just head off after the bad guy himself. I mean gimme a break, he had that vision of his and no one would even listen. He had more than a reason to go off and do his own thing.

The characters are alright. I expected more from a book centered around the human mind, but still, can't complain there. I just wish the main character would have told us exactly why his partner is so easy to irritate all the time. Not that it's annoying to read or anything because I always enjoy reading a book where the characters are miserable. (And before you peg me as a sociopath, it's because the status quo a.k.a happy people never makes for an exciting book). The characters are actually rather few, which I was thankful for. It's easier to keep track of who's who and what powers they have when you're not assaulted by a cast the size of Bleach.

I greatly enjoyed reading about our protagonist's struggle with his drug addiction. Seeing him dancing around the line between being clean and hooked made the character feel a bit more real to me. I found myself actually feeling bummed out when his sponsor found the hidden stash and just threw it away. Now, you might have noticed that I used "protagonist" and "main character" quite a lot in this review. Why? Because our main guy's name isn't mentioned until the very end. (If that's even his real name, of course.) I was just reading along, not really picking up on the fact that he was nameless and then it just hits you in a sort of "holy shit, how did I not notice before?" I don't know why, but I thought it was a very neat trick.

At this point I'm still not sure what to rate this thing. I mean there's nothing all that mind blowing about it, there's just one twist you kind of see coming, and the action is limited. But I figure sometimes you just gotta say fuck it and appreciate the fact that the book is written nicely and is pretty damn original. I mean you got mind battles for god's sake, how awesome is that? (less)

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Dec 20, 2012 Brian Steele rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dark-fantasy, mystery, scifi, thriller

Hughes presents us with a work of genre-crossing noir in the tradition of Jim Butcher - only better. Take out the down-on-his-luck Wizard in modern day Chigaco and transplant in an ex-junkie telepath in futuristic Atlanta. If THAT doesn't already make you interested...

The world building is spectacular, with so much room to go. A planet ravaged by the "Tech Wars," who now fears computers, and a Telepath's Guild that saved them. A new drug called Strain, rampant bio-engineering, oh, and there are...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Corey Frampton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Welcome to the world of Clean - a Mindspace investigation novel written by Alex Hughes.

If I had to judge this book on the world design alone, I would still rate it off the charts. The world is brand new and original and nothing like I have ever read before. The concept for the world revolves around an incident known as the Tech Wars (which we learn regrettably little about in this first book) where basically, the world was on the brink of destruction - any form of networked technology was liter...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Jo (Mixed Book Bag) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, science-fiction

Clean has everything to make a good story. A flawed hero, a by the book cop, and a good plot, add the fact that it is Science Fiction and what more could you ask for.

Clean is set sometime in the future. Tech became the enemy and had to be severely controlled. The Telepath’s Guild helped win the Tech Wars and are now a major but not really trusted part of society. The world building is excellent and helps make the story.

The flawed hero is Adam but the story is told in first person and we do not l...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Dave Swavely rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this book because it was listed on Amazon as something similar to my own debut novel Silhouette, and I can't resist anything with a Philip Marlowesque trench coat on the cover, because I'm a big Raymond Chandler fan. Then I saw it contained a psychic investigating crime, like in The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester, one of my other favorite authors. So I had to try it out, and I actually made it through the whole novel to the end, which rarely happens, for a number of reasons I won't go i...more

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Oct 05, 2012 Jeanbooknerd rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews

Alex Hughes’ Clean: A Mindspace Investigations Novels is a brilliant murder mystery set in a futuristic world. The book follows a very unhappy nameless character that happens to be an ex-addict (who stills wrestles with it on a daily basis) with telepathic skills at the 8th level. He also works for the police helping to solve murders with his special abilities. He is partnered with Isabella Cherabino, a very sexy cop who has her very own share of problems. With the main suspect for the current m...more

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Sep 06, 2012 James Knapp rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Clean. I provided a blurb for the jacket - here is the full review the blurb came from:

Hughes's world is an interesting mix of old and new, a world of flying cars and noir-ish, steamy streets that are a fun blend of Chinatown and Blade Runner. The cat-and-mouse murder investigation between those who can both kill and hunt with the power of the mind is fascinating, and while Hugh knows how to unfold a mystery to be sure she never loses sight of her characters' humanity. She under...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Susan rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: couldn-t-get-through

The world setting is very good -- a bit like NEUROMANCER -- the dark and gritty urban setting that I'm partial to. The characters, however.... The protagonist is more than a little bit of a Gary Stu. He's whiny but a 8 star or something that makes him better than even the "elites" in their system and he can read the minds of 90 out of a 100 people at a time (I kid you not the book says this) (how is he not crazy yet) (oh wait that maybe explains some of this) and the BEST non-official detective...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Felicia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-paranormal

Taking a break from the more lady-driven books I've been reading lately, I picked this urban paranormal book up with a male protagonist, solely on the interesting world it seemed to have. And I highly recommend it!

It's a world where tech has collapsed and telekinetics have evolved, and our protagonist is a junkie who works for the police force. Now, our protagonist (who remains unnamed almost the whole book because it's first person) is not the most uplifting character, but his struggle with hi...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Kathy Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars

CLEAN is a new urban fantasy with a unique main character. He is a very powerful telepath who has been kicked out of the Guild because of a drug habit. The Guild controls, educates, and certifies for employment those who have strong psychic abilities. The Guild saved Western Civilization during the Tech Wars but had to get very scary to do so. Now, by treaty, they govern their own and keep their own secrets.

Our hero now works for the police primarily as an interviewer and battles his addiction....more CLEAN is a new urban fantasy with a unique main character. He is a very powerful telepath who has been kicked out of the Guild because of a drug habit. The Guild controls, educates, and certifies for employment those who have strong psychic abilities. The Guild saved Western Civilization during the Tech Wars but had to get very scary to do so. Now, by treaty, they govern their own and keep their own secrets.

Our hero now works for the police primarily as an interviewer and battles his addiction. Because of a recent lapse in sobriety, he is not trusted by very many of the police officers he works with. But when he and his partner/mentor Isabella Cherabino are called to the scene of a recent murder, our hero recognizes that this has to be a crime committed by psychics. Besides being a telepath, our hero also occasionally has precognitive visions. He has one that tells him the he and Cherabino are in danger from a psychic attack in a warehouse that greatly damages Cherabino and kills him. He is determined to watch Cherabino even though she doesn't really trust him and hates the idea that he could be reading her mind. Our hero also has to work with his ex-fiance at the Guild when he needs information from them to track down the one who is doing the killing.

This was a tense, action packed thriller as the police and our hero have to track down a killer. The world building was interesting. The anti-technology bias and the rising power of the Guild were there in contrast to police procedures that would fit right in with any contemporary mystery novel. Psychic gifts from telepathy to telekenisis to teleportation to precognition were all present in this world. Those with psychic gifts were generally feared and avoided.

You will note that I haven't given our hero's name. Since the story is told in tight first person and no one addresses him by name, we don't find out the name of the main character until the second to the last paragraph of the book. I think that the fact that no one calls him by name is just a symptom of his total isolation throughout this book and how much his lapses from sobriety have ruined his relationships with the people around him.

Our hero attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings with his sponsor Swartz but he is still always looking for his next fix of Satin. His constant craving for a drug that he knows can kill him is woven through the book. We truly see inside an addict's mind. But we also see that his ethics and values are not totally gone. He is determined to protect his friend Cherabino even when his relationship with her is rocky. He wants the Guild to the right thing even though he hates the Guild for kicking him out.

I really enjoyed this urban fantasy and will be looking for more by the author. I really want more about these characters too and hope things get better for the main character. (less)

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Apr 07, 2013 Larry rated it 3 of 5 stars

It is a very good first novel (better than, say the first Dresden novel) but the author almost ruins it for me by sticking so close to the "Dresden Formula", that being "its all the noble protagonist's fault and guilt and regret consume our mighty hero".

The hero of the story is, from pg 1, immediately playing the guilt game because he is a narcotic addict. The author does a good job of depicting the constant need and it becomes intergal to the story. But when he starts blaming himself for strang...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Van rated it 4 of 5 stars

4 1/2 stars.

Clean is the first book in the Mindspace Investigation series narrated by a nameless level 8 telepath. Our protagonist was the top of his class at the Guild, and went on to become a professor teaching other people with abilities doing what many cannot…teaching not only 1-2 students but a class of 200 (piggy-backing off his mind) how to construct/deconstruct the mind. That eventually all changed when our protagonist started abusing drugs (satin) which got him kicked out of the Guild....more 4 1/2 stars.

Clean is the first book in the Mindspace Investigation series narrated by a nameless level 8 telepath. Our protagonist was the top of his class at the Guild, and went on to become a professor teaching other people with abilities doing what many cannot…teaching not only 1-2 students but a class of 200 (piggy-backing off his mind) how to construct/deconstruct the mind. That eventually all changed when our protagonist started abusing drugs (satin) which got him kicked out of the Guild. He now works as a consultant/interrogator for the police; just making enough for his basic essentials like shelter, food and clothing (the department handles his paychecks to make sure he doesn’t use it on drugs). Meanwhile, there’s a serial killer targeting people in Atlanta and Homicide detective Cherabino thinks he can help her figure who the killer is. Together they race against the clock to find this telepath/teleport killer before he strikes again because he knows they’re catching up to him…and the only way to get them off his tail is to hit them first. Our protagonist knows exactly how dire the situation is because he has visions of the future and it’s of him and Cheriabino who are the next to die.

The world of Clean was really fascinating, a futuristic world but still with old world stuff. It’s been 50 years since the Tech Wars (where technology couldn’t be trusted anymore going against humans, and killing people by messing up with chips in the mind…not much is said about the tech wars) and since everyone is mostly scared of what happened in the past with technology/computers; people have resorted back to the pen and paper method to keep records. Not everything is old though, there are air-cars, artificial organs, bio-engineered drugs and Mindspace itself which is tricky to explain since I’m still a little confuse about it. Hughes did a great job on the world building, explaining everything to the readers without throwing a bunch of information down but little by little throughout the book. Clean is an introduction to the series, so while not everything is explained in perfect detail, I’m sure we’ll learn more in the following book. Our main hero and heroine of the novel were both well developed and flawed which I like. It makes them more realistic battling with their own personal demons.

Clean is a great addition to the science fiction genre (a little bit UF with the abilities), it has everything you want in a novel; a dark and gritty setting, unique world building, well fleshed out characters you want to root for and a plot full of actions with surprises you won’t see coming. I love the main murder mystery of the book, and all the police procedure/Mindspace aspects. I am looking forward to see what Hughes has in store for our protagonist and the world of Mindspace, definitely a series not to be missed. I highly recommend this series to all sci-fi, UF and maybe even those who don’t usually read within these genres.(less)

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Sep 21, 2012 Stella rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, for-review, urban-fantasy, sci-fi, crime

Clean is the first book in Alex Hughes new exciting gritty urban fantasy series: the first in the Mindspace Investigations novels. We are sometime in the future where things are a bit changed and unfamiliar (artificial organs, anti- graviton generators for flying cars, drug-assisted telepathy), but not too far-fetched or unrealistic to make it difficult for the reader to picture or comprehend them (like deadly toxic rainwater). However it is interesting to see that due to the horrible Tech Wards...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Katherine McIntyre rated it 2 of 5 stars

So, I got this book as part of the First Reads program and was anxious to give it a try. I love urban fantasy and the story sounded really fun.

The writing is solid and the book contains some interesting and unique worldbuilding. The whole system of telepaths is well thought out and works well within the story.

I had two big issues with this book. First off was that the first half felt very reminiscent to 'Stormfront' by Jim Butcher.

But the biggest problem I had by far were the characters. Chera...more

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May 23, 2013 Fantasy Literature rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-by-john

3.5 stars

Clean is the first installment in the MINDSPACE INVESTIGATIONS series by Alex Hughes. It’s sort of a mix of police procedural, mystery, urban fantasy and science fiction.

Set sometime in a distance future, humans have become wary of artificial intelligence and the telepathic abilities of the people who saved humanity from the sentient computers during an event now known as the Tech Wars. Some people still have internet interfaces implanted in their brains, but most of their fellow humans...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-read

Told by a consultant to the Atlanta Police Department, this story centers around the time he spent assisting Detective Isabella Cherabino in the search for a serial killer. This consultant happens to be a strong, highly skilled Guild trained telepath. His precognitive skills (75% correct) though erratic are very good. For some reason Cherabino agreed to work with him. His presence in the department's interrogation room in general and Cherabino's cases specifically has greatly improved the case c...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Mary (BookHounds) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, from-publisher-author

MY THOUGHTS
LOVED IT

After the TechWars have devastated the United States, people no longer rely on electronics since they were able to develop into senescent beings. Parts of the country have been ruined and the police are still trying to get ahead of the bad guys. Told in the first person, a telepath, level 8, has the ability to read people's minds. As a recovering addict, he has lost his job with the Guild, the organization who controls humans with paranormal gifts and now subsists on his job a...more

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May 04, 2013 Jasmyn9 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, urban-fantasy, thriller, mindspace-investigations

Clean has a great blend of science fiction and urban fantasy. Taking place in the near future, but after a devastating war that has left people afraid to trust technology, so there isn't a whole lot of "spaceship" type technology. After these wars, the "special" humans emerged. The main character is one of these, although he has alienated himself from the Guild - the ruling body for psychics - because of drug abuse.

He now works as a consultant for a police department in Atlanta - helping crack...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy, science-fiction, reviews

Our hero is a telepath and he use to work for the guild until they banned him for his drug abuse. Nowadays he works for the police, specifically with Isabella Cherabino. Cherabino's recent case is a hard one. Six different murders and she's stumped. She will need our hero's telepathic help to catch the killer.

Good read! I loved the setting and the world-building was excellent. For me there was slow patch at the beginning. But all in all Clean was an intriguing story, with a complex hero. I quite...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Kathy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This story is told from a first person point of view and in fact you don't find out the main character's name till the last page in the book, which is a little disconcerting. Aside from that I enjoyed this book. Our main character lives in future America deeply scared by previous technology wars. He's a strong telepath was bought down on the social ladder by drugs he got accidentally addicted to - He's trying to make a clean start but every day is a struggle with the siren call of his old drug h...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Rae rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mad-science, mind-powers, mystery, scifi, worth-the-cash

3.5 stars

I liked the concepts and uses of telepaths in this book. There was more than just the usual fare of mind powers and the possibilities for what they could do were really interesting. I especially liked the fact they could be used to help people wake up from comas and teach a whole class at the same time. I would have liked to know more about the Guild, which controls the telepaths, teleporters, and telekenetics. I was curious as to how they managed to get so much power that they have the...more 3.5 stars

I liked the concepts and uses of telepaths in this book. There was more than just the usual fare of mind powers and the possibilities for what they could do were really interesting. I especially liked the fact they could be used to help people wake up from comas and teach a whole class at the same time. I would have liked to know more about the Guild, which controls the telepaths, teleporters, and telekenetics. I was curious as to how they managed to get so much power that they have the ability to try and sentence their members when laws are broken.

The setting was well established for the most part, but felt like little more than window dressing. I liked the concept of the very futuristic, but mistrustful of technology attitude the society had but I felt that more could have been done with it. It would have been nice to see how the this affected things more. Hopefully the next book will expand on this.

For the most part I liked the main character, Adam. Some of my favorite parts of the book are when he's interrogating suspects since he has to trick them into saying aloud what he's picking up on in their heads. Adam's also a recovering drug addict and while the book doesn't beat you over the head with his addiction too much, it is a constant presence throughout the book.

Cherabino was the character I had the most problems with. She felt rather flat to me despite how important she is to Adam. She's your standard, tough, stubborn, and quick to anger female lead that seems to be everywhere in fiction these days. The book tries to give her some dimension by having her be a widow, but we really don't get to see much of this side of her. Her dead husband seemed mostly just there to motivate her strive for justice. Hopefully she'll develop more as the series progresses.

Fortunately Cherabino isn't the only female character in the book. Paulsen, Cherabino and Adam's superior, is level headed, smart and willing to admit when she makes a mistake. Kara, the Guild attache, was interesting because despite her ladder climbing ways she genuinely does have ethics and is willing to put aside the differences the Guild has with the police to catch the murderers.

As far as the antagonists in the book go, I was rather disappointed by their motivation. I felt it could have been fleshed out more as it just seemed thrown in there at the end. The antagonists were doing alright as villains up until that point and it was a bit of a let down. Though I will admit the telepathic battle at the end was well done.

Overall the book was entertaining and I'll be picking up the next book in the series. If you're a fan of cop shows and scifi, you'll probably like this book.(less)

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Sep 21, 2012 Mihir rated it 3 of 5 stars

Full Review originally at Fantasy Book Critic

ANALYSIS: Clean comes with an interesting premise, its set in the future and features a Telepath who is also an addict trying to stop a serial murderer. This premise was what attracted me to this book and so I jumped into this noir-SF-UF procedural mix. I wanted to see how this debut was going to hold up since it's from ACE-ROC who have been coming up with some stellar stuff including the soon to be released Daughter Of The Sword that was such a ter...more
Full Review originally at Fantasy Book Critic

ANALYSIS: Clean comes with an interesting premise, its set in the future and features a Telepath who is also an addict trying to stop a serial murderer. This premise was what attracted me to this book and so I jumped into this noir-SF-UF procedural mix. I wanted to see how this debut was going to hold up since it's from ACE-ROC who have been coming up with some stellar stuff including the soon to be released Daughter Of The Sword that was such a terrific one.

Clean starts with an interrogation wherein the protagonist is interviewing a witness who has no clue about his abilities. As per the Guild ratings he’s classified as a level eight Telepath. That is a big deal and were it not for his drug habit in regards to Satin, he would be a very important persona in the pecking order of the Guild. Things unfortunately haven’t worked out and so he finds himself working for the Atlanta police department. His life isn’t perfect, far from it but he’s fighting hard one moment at a time.

The world this series is set in is the future but not exactly specified how much. It’s a world, which has been laid distraught by an event called the "Tech Wars”. This event was a bit similar to the rise of Skynet from the Terminator mythology, the machines did rise up but were unsuccessful in dismantling Humanity from the species table. Since then the American way of life has changed and machines and technology have become something of an anathema. The author introduces the world slowly through out the protagonist’s eyes and from information that is sparse and spread out here and there through out the story (the reason for it being so is discussed by the author in the Q&A below).

The story is then focused on the search for a killer who has been going around killing people in a brutal manner and detective Isabella Cherabino and the protagonist might be the only people who can figure him out and stop his deadly spree. One thing I have to give the author credit for, she has taken on a huge mix of genre styles and has managed to combine them with a story about identity and redemption quite successfully. This story has a very strong procedural feel to it but what differentiates also it, is its urban fantasy-thriller settings. The world that the plot focusses upon is one of the future and is dystopian to a degree but not in the way you would expect. After the Tech Wars, mankind has become very wary of technology and so the world settings feel a bit like the 70s before the advent of computers, cell phones and other tech stuff in to the common man’s life. However the moment you end up think its in the past, something crazy happens to remind you of the world and time settings.

Characterization is vital with a first person POV narrative and in this case even more so when the POV voice is an addict who’s desperately trying to balance his cravings against his moral judgment. This book could have turned out to be very depressing because of the predicament of the protagonist however to the author’s credit, it doesn’t turn out to be so much so as to turn the reader off. Plus there’s also the mystery of the main protagonist’s name that isn't revealed until the very last paragraph of the story. That was a very cool twist to the story and it doesn’t feel too weird as through out the story wherein no one refers to the main character by his name.

Lastly only a couple of factors go against this debut book, the first factor being is its pace. The book begins very very slowly and through the first 70-80 pages, the world setting as well as the character backstory is languidly set up. This really doesn’t help as many a reader might be off-put by such a beginning. Also the world settings and backstory are only given lip service but never clearly explained. For me this was a major off-putting point, I as a reader always like to know about the world. But the author reveals very little in regards to what came before that has lead to the world being in the state it’s described.

CONCLUSION: Alex Hughes’s debut is a good one, she has taken amalgamated lots of factors into a single storyline and has done it decently. There are some issues, which might pop out more depending on the reader’s choices and likes. Clean is a book that gives a different type of procedural story and one I hope that will continue to its eventual conclusion. A solid and interesting debut that promises to be worthy of your time.(less)

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Clean (Mindspace Investigation #1)

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