Book Review: A Disabled Detective in Space
The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
A murder mystery set on a space station, what could befiner? When the detectives are Tesla Crane, a brilliant and extremely wealthyinventor with an array of PTSD and physical injuries, her service dog, and herreal-life (although retired) detective husband, Shal. No sooner do they embarkincognito upon their honeymoon voyage than a fellow passenger is murdered andall clues point to Shal. The ship’s security cuts off their communications (totheir Earthside attorney, for one thing, and to one another, for another). Onlythen do things start to go seriously pear-shaped.
For me, what makes The Spare Man stand out fromsimilar tales is its depiction of a disabled protagonist. Tesla faces thelimitations of crippling spinal damage, an implanted pain-suppression device,and the risks of having her trauma re-triggered. She has an array of copingstrategies, the most outstanding of which is her service dog, a Westlandterrier named Gimlet. As the former owner of a retired seeing eye dog andfriend to a number of folks who rely on service dogs (as opposed to the badlybehaved pets that sometimes pass as such), I appreciated how Kowal portrayed aservice dog at work. These included how Gimlet was “on work” or “released” tobe just a dog, and when working, how she was focused on Tesla and herspecifically trained behaviors to alert her owner of impending trouble.Sometimes, the dog would physically prevent Tesla from engaging in emotionallyperilous behavior. I cheered when another character would ask to pet thisabsolutely charming dog and Tesla would say, “No, she’s working. If you pether, you will interrupt her focus.” I wish more people understood this beforethey walk up to a vested service dog and start interacting without asking first(or, worse yet, allow their toddlers to rush up to a service dog!)
Unfortunately, the mystery unfolded too slowly for me, withmany interruptions that dissipated the tension and forward momentum. Halfwaythrough the novel, I began to be increasingly irritated with Tesla. Herpropensity for interfering with the investigation by the ship’s security, ignoringher service dog (including leaving her dog behind and going into dangeroussituations), dialing up her pain-suppression device at the very real risk ofinjury through numbness, and especially lying to her husband about being finewhen it was obvious she was not fine, all these eroded my sympathies. Ithought her lawyer was overhyped and ineffective, although possessed of anextremely colorful and imaginative vocabulary. I had a hard time moving past apoint fairly early in the book where Shal has been drugged, probably by thesecurity force who are holding him against his will under the pretext he is asuicide risk. I would have been terrified this was all a set-up to do away withhim as the only competent investigator around, but Tesla blithely goes abouther way, following clues in a desultory fashion only when it suits her.
In the end, the resolution of the mystery was quitesatisfying and put together a wide array of clues. Some of these had gottenburied under inconsequential chit-chat about how cute Gimlet is, not to mentionthe excessive repetitions of Tesla’s coping strategies (if she’s thatsuccessful in using them, why does she end up on the verge of an incapacitatingmeltdown so often?) This would have been a much better, tighter, moredramatically sound book at half the length.
I loved Kowal’s other work and will continue to read herbooks as they come out, but The Spare Man was, alas, not up to her best.
