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Red Planet Noir
Winner of the 2010 Indie Book Award for Science Fiction.
Michael Sheppard was the best private eye in New Orleans, and then his wife left him. He finds solace in the bottle and his career in the toilet. Nights at the casino pay the bills, until they don't, and leg breakers start knocking at the door, and knocking out his teeth.
When he's hired by a bombshell heiress to check out a murder on Mars, it's a chance for a new start. But as the case unfolds, he makes enemies of cops and gangsters alike in an investigation racing from stately mansions to smoke-filled speakeasies, from deserted ice colonies to mining towns on the asteroid belt.
All he wanted was a paycheck to clear some gambling debt. Now Michael is the key figure in a murder conspiracy that's left a vacuum in the halls of power, with the labor union, mob and military vying for control of Mars.
RED PLANET NOIR is for science fiction and hardboiled mystery fans alike. Living on Mars can be murder.
Michael Sheppard was the best private eye in New Orleans, and then his wife left him. He finds solace in the bottle and his career in the toilet. Nights at the casino pay the bills, until they don't, and leg breakers start knocking at the door, and knocking out his teeth.
When he's hired by a bombshell heiress to check out a murder on Mars, it's a chance for a new start. But as the case unfolds, he makes enemies of cops and gangsters alike in an investigation racing from stately mansions to smoke-filled speakeasies, from deserted ice colonies to mining towns on the asteroid belt.
All he wanted was a paycheck to clear some gambling debt. Now Michael is the key figure in a murder conspiracy that's left a vacuum in the halls of power, with the labor union, mob and military vying for control of Mars.
RED PLANET NOIR is for science fiction and hardboiled mystery fans alike. Living on Mars can be murder.
216 pages, Paperback
First published November 20, 2009
3 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 25, 2009
I wrote this book. I learned a lot.
June 8, 2020
The science fiction and mystery genres are hardly strangers. Several authors notable in one genre have crossed into the other's territory from time-to-time. (Think sci-fi author Isaac Asimov's "Robot" series or sometime mystery author Sharyn McCrumb's Jay Omega books.) RED PLANET NOIR has the distinction of taking an old-fashioned 1940s-era private eye and placing him in the context of a post-apocalyptic Earth, in the city of New Orleans.
When we meet Mike Sheppard, he's answering the phone "half-drunk, half-dressed, half-asleep and half expecting it to be the phone company reminding me that the bill was past due." At first glance, he's a typical hardboiled private eye. However, as one reads further, it turns out Sheppard is much more than that. He is, in fact, a deeply wounded man. His ex-wife left him (under less-than-ideal circumstances) and he's all over the news for fingering the wrong person in a high-profile case. In short, Sheppard has plenty to feel bad about, and author D.B. Grady conveys his pain with great empathy.
So when Sofia Reed asks Sheppard to investigate her well-connected father's death on Mars, he has little to lose. But he has no idea what he's getting into, either. For as it happens, Mars is under martial law, its economy is dominated by a major corporation, and both the government and corporation have Mob connections. (It's also a "no smoking" planet, which doesn't go over well with the chain-smoking PI.) So, when Sheppard goes to Mars and starts poking around, it rubs a few people the wrong way. And this causes him major problems (ones that dwarf even his perpetual need for a smoke – a rather endearing running gag).
The story is told, for the most part, from the detective's point of view, as most PI novels are. However, Grady inserts a chapter of backstory about the history of Mars and one family in particular that's written with such a heartfelt sense of tragedy, readers may find themselves laughing at Sheppard's ongoing quips one minute and weeping at the tragedy the next. This detour from the narrative is virtually seamless and adds a vivid layer of detail to the Martian context.
This story is a unique take on the hard-boiled detective story. Sheppard is truly a "fish out of water" -- a 1940s-style PI wisecracking his way through a perilous investigation on the Red Planet sometime after Earth's apocalypse. (And Mars is a "no smoking" planet, at that -- not a good place for a chain-smoking PI.) However, underneath all the jokes (including a running one-liner I loved about his need for "a smoke"), there lurks a wounded man. Sheppard is likable for both his humor and his vulnerability.
With an obvious facility for words, a great sense of humor and a unique voice, D.B. Grady has written a story that has both emotional depth and a sense of high adventure. There were several points where I laughed out loud (unusual for me) and a couple of parts where I thought I'd weep (during a chapter of backstory about Mars' history -- an unusual, but well-crafted, departure from the first person narrative). The plot is a page-turner, gripping you more the farther you get into it.
I would only note that the clues (including the one that solves the murder) were somewhat easy for me to spot (but I write mysteries and read a LOT of them). In addition, the ending while noir-ish, is not typical noir. Even so, the story is highly enjoyable and, while the protagonist may follow the old-style model, the story is anything but formulaic.
I highly recommend this book and hope to read many more Mike Sheppard mysteries.
When we meet Mike Sheppard, he's answering the phone "half-drunk, half-dressed, half-asleep and half expecting it to be the phone company reminding me that the bill was past due." At first glance, he's a typical hardboiled private eye. However, as one reads further, it turns out Sheppard is much more than that. He is, in fact, a deeply wounded man. His ex-wife left him (under less-than-ideal circumstances) and he's all over the news for fingering the wrong person in a high-profile case. In short, Sheppard has plenty to feel bad about, and author D.B. Grady conveys his pain with great empathy.
So when Sofia Reed asks Sheppard to investigate her well-connected father's death on Mars, he has little to lose. But he has no idea what he's getting into, either. For as it happens, Mars is under martial law, its economy is dominated by a major corporation, and both the government and corporation have Mob connections. (It's also a "no smoking" planet, which doesn't go over well with the chain-smoking PI.) So, when Sheppard goes to Mars and starts poking around, it rubs a few people the wrong way. And this causes him major problems (ones that dwarf even his perpetual need for a smoke – a rather endearing running gag).
The story is told, for the most part, from the detective's point of view, as most PI novels are. However, Grady inserts a chapter of backstory about the history of Mars and one family in particular that's written with such a heartfelt sense of tragedy, readers may find themselves laughing at Sheppard's ongoing quips one minute and weeping at the tragedy the next. This detour from the narrative is virtually seamless and adds a vivid layer of detail to the Martian context.
This story is a unique take on the hard-boiled detective story. Sheppard is truly a "fish out of water" -- a 1940s-style PI wisecracking his way through a perilous investigation on the Red Planet sometime after Earth's apocalypse. (And Mars is a "no smoking" planet, at that -- not a good place for a chain-smoking PI.) However, underneath all the jokes (including a running one-liner I loved about his need for "a smoke"), there lurks a wounded man. Sheppard is likable for both his humor and his vulnerability.
With an obvious facility for words, a great sense of humor and a unique voice, D.B. Grady has written a story that has both emotional depth and a sense of high adventure. There were several points where I laughed out loud (unusual for me) and a couple of parts where I thought I'd weep (during a chapter of backstory about Mars' history -- an unusual, but well-crafted, departure from the first person narrative). The plot is a page-turner, gripping you more the farther you get into it.
I would only note that the clues (including the one that solves the murder) were somewhat easy for me to spot (but I write mysteries and read a LOT of them). In addition, the ending while noir-ish, is not typical noir. Even so, the story is highly enjoyable and, while the protagonist may follow the old-style model, the story is anything but formulaic.
I highly recommend this book and hope to read many more Mike Sheppard mysteries.
March 5, 2013
Fellow readers, this book is noir perfection, and worth every cent. Mr. Grady, you are a wordsmith extraordinaire! Seldom am I impressed to the extent of jumping up and down. And seldom do I laugh out loud, but sir, you made me do both simultaneously all of the way through the book. Absolutely outstanding! I like gritty and I like noir and I like scifi and I like detective mysteries. Red Planet Noir has all of these elements in spades. You have written this to perfection with fully fleshed characters and a laugh a minute. The personalities are, well, they're funny. The attribute I like the most, though, is the color. Like Faulkner, like James Lee Burke, like a George Seurat painting, kaleidoscopic color so rich I almost tore out a page and ate it. I want more. I want more now. I do not want to wait. I want you to stop whatever worthless thing you might be doing right this moment and devote the remainder of your talented life to writing sequels until your fingers fall off, and then I'll type for you!
March 15, 2010
It's astounding that I liked this book, since it really is a noir mystery, with plenty of cynicism and violence, neither of which I care for at all. But I couldn't help being drawn into the world--or worlds, since the action starts on Earth and moves to Mars. Grady manages to be both timeless and futuristic. At no time could you mistake the setting for LA in the '30s, or any place but Mars at any time but the future, yet the grittiness and griminess were as real and immediate as anything set in the current time.
I don't like Harlan Ellison's stories, either, most of them, but I read them anyway, because art isn't supposed to be likable.
I don't like Harlan Ellison's stories, either, most of them, but I read them anyway, because art isn't supposed to be likable.
May 6, 2013
Fantastic. My first love in reading is Science Fiction, but I also love good crime noir. This one had both, of course, judging by the title alone. I was not disappointed. It was skillfully written, and kept me guessing to the end. There was enough about Mars, and space travel, and asteroid mining, to keep the Sci Fi tag going, and then there was corruption: of a good and necessary union, of the Air Force, and of the police, enough to keep the detective one groin punch, laser, or gunshot away from death at almost all times. Some good characters in this, and a few that could have been fleshed out a bit, but perhaps at the expense of the main story. Anyway, thumbs up from me.
February 5, 2025
New Orleans private eye Mike is hired by the daughter of a major government figure on Mars to investigate his suicide or murder. The authorities seemed to declare it a suicide too easily. The story has a greater conspiracy element than most private eye books. There are various forces on Mars dealing with their power on Mars. There's the ruling Air Force (associated with something like the U.S.), the mob, there's the "labor union" secretly preparing to seize power, a retired military General who talks to people who aren't there, etc. Mike even has suspicions about the daughter's husband's involvement in the official investigation. Mike gets into trouble with the various groups, runs into twists and turns...
The book won the 2010 – Next Generation Indie Book Award for science fiction.
Private eyes in noir often have some emotional wounds or such. Mike may spend more time than average telling us about his wife that left him.
The solution seemed sudden and abruptly pieced together, but it is interesting in the context of much of the book.
The book won the 2010 – Next Generation Indie Book Award for science fiction.
Private eyes in noir often have some emotional wounds or such. Mike may spend more time than average telling us about his wife that left him.
The solution seemed sudden and abruptly pieced together, but it is interesting in the context of much of the book.
January 11, 2021
Very noir! Fun language, I found myself highlighting some of the funnier lines. Not really any SF in here, but I didn't mind.
June 13, 2025
Okay honestly, I thought it would be pulpy and silly (and it was) but it was also very interesting and well written. A true love letter to the genre. Amazing neo-noir. Love it
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 25, 2016
Red Planet Noir, by D.B.Grady, is a hard-boiled detective story. Mike Sheppard is a heart broken alcoholic New Orleans detective who is called to Mars to solve the murder of a rich man by his trophy wife. The trophy wife is a bombshell blond. Sheppard, the narrator, finds himself in the coils of conspiracy. He is frequently sapped and knocked unconscious. The style is remarkably good for a flat out imitation of Chandler. Mars itself is rendered in lurid colour. He doesn’t get into a lot of technical detail, sticking to the vertiginous sensation of space flight. This is good. I don’t like a lot of technical science fiction mumbo jumbo. This books is fun to read, intelligently written but in no way original. He works the standard action of a Chandler book in a different place and channels mostly Chandler’s sarcasm. He attempts to weave in Chandler’s disappointment and ennui but only achieves a tone of self-pity in a series of stock reminiscences about his unfaithful ex-wife.
December 9, 2009
Red Planet Noir in turn scared me and excited me. It made me cringe and wince and mutter "Oh my God" more than once as I traveled alongside Michael Sheppard, the down, but not out, Private Eye from post-apocalyptic New Orleans, hired to solve a murder on Mars. Falling into the world DB Grady created, I found it, in turn, horrifyingly believable and fantastical. The story is fast-paced and multi-faceted, and the author brings richness and depth to even the minor characters as Mike makes his way in and out of trouble on the Red Planet.
Park Mickey Spillane and part Michael Crichton, DB Grady manages to bring both the past into the future and the future back to the past in his novel with clarity and humor. The futuristic world inlaid with Mike Sheppard's old-fashioned vernacular makes reading this novel a joy.
Park Mickey Spillane and part Michael Crichton, DB Grady manages to bring both the past into the future and the future back to the past in his novel with clarity and humor. The futuristic world inlaid with Mike Sheppard's old-fashioned vernacular makes reading this novel a joy.
April 12, 2011
This is sort of like Sam Spade goes to Mars. A down on his luck gum shoe from New Orleans gets a case where he has to go to Mars to investigate the murder of the clients father which was ruled as suicide. The plot thickens and quickly involves powers from th police, Air Force, mob, and union all involved and not liking the investigation. Mars does'nt have much of an atmosphere, but this book sure did as it successfully mixed the Hardboiled P.I. Story in a SF setting. Really quite fun while also being a hard hitting crime drama.
April 7, 2011
Starts out strong. Like the humor, like the pace. It plateaus (not in a bad way) quickly at a good pace, as the story begins to develop. Then the humor becomes all the same, we go places I'm not sure why we went, the story stopped developing as we do a travelogue. Then the mystery is solved and we go home.
I really like mystery based sci-fi, so had great expectations. It is a short book, so I anticipated it maintaining a very fast pace, which it started, then stopped. Could have given it three stars, but had to pick one or the other, and two seemed closer to how I felt about it.
I really like mystery based sci-fi, so had great expectations. It is a short book, so I anticipated it maintaining a very fast pace, which it started, then stopped. Could have given it three stars, but had to pick one or the other, and two seemed closer to how I felt about it.
Read
July 29, 2011"...I pulled on a shirt that wasn't very dirty, but smelled of Scotch and strippers, my signiture cologne...." Thus we meet our hero(?), New Orleans private dick, Mike Sheppard. This is a good old fashioned private-eye story, placed in what really is a distopian future, with a devistated Earth, and a Mars colony replete with all of the vice and corruption that made Sheppard feel right at home. Couple with this a fine, fine wit, that left me truely laughing out loud, and you have one hell of a detective story. I hope this is an indication of things to come from first time novelist D.B. Grady.
March 23, 2010
I usually don't read sci-fi type books but I actually REALLY enjoyed this one.. I loved the characters that were brought to life and the entire book was so descriptive I could see everything in my head perfectly.
I would definitely love to read more about Michael Sheppard's interesting detective cases. I hope there are more to come! :)
I would definitely love to read more about Michael Sheppard's interesting detective cases. I hope there are more to come! :)
October 30, 2010
This book was recommended to me by a friend and I'm so glad I read it. It has all the great elements of both a sci-fi novel and a classic detective story. And the way certain things are described really made me smile. Sometimes even giggle. They were that good. I would definitely pass on the recommendation to others.
November 2, 2010
Good read, it is very noir, with a mystery from the start, flawed and interesting characters, twists, awesome settings, and believable bad guys and human weaknesses.
Very much looking forward to a next novel!
Very much looking forward to a next novel!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews