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Brill and Maxwell #1
The Doppelgänger Gambit
It looks like straightforward suicide to Detective Janna Brill. Starship outfitter Andy Kellener locked himself in his office after hours and took a fatal drug dose. But Brill’s exasperating new partner Mama Maxwell thinks it’s murder, and his chief suspect is Kellener’s partner Jorge Hazlett. The trouble is, Hazlett has an airtight alibi. In 2091's cashless society, every purchase is made with a data chip implanted in the individual’s wrist...and Hazlett’s bank records put him in a shopping mall clear across town at the time of his partner’s death. To get their man, Brill and Maxwell have to prove Hazlett faked his shopping spree...and possibly destroy law enforcement’s best tool since DNA for tracking suspects!
Reviews
“This is a grittily realistic police procedural set in the 21st century. Don’t miss this one.” Analog Magazine
“Like many procedurals the novel’s strength rests as much on the personalities of the cops as in the solving of the crime, and Brill and Maxwell make an entertaining pair.” Locus Magazine
“Police Procedural SF is rare — that makes Ms. Killough’s fun romp all the more appreciated. The characters, plot, indeed the whole future society are very well developed in this novel.” SF Review 34
Reviews
“This is a grittily realistic police procedural set in the 21st century. Don’t miss this one.” Analog Magazine
“Like many procedurals the novel’s strength rests as much on the personalities of the cops as in the solving of the crime, and Brill and Maxwell make an entertaining pair.” Locus Magazine
“Police Procedural SF is rare — that makes Ms. Killough’s fun romp all the more appreciated. The characters, plot, indeed the whole future society are very well developed in this novel.” SF Review 34
261 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 12, 1979
4 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Lee Killough
52 books15 followersLee Killough has been storytelling since the age of four or five, when she began making up her own bedtime stories. So when she discovered science fiction and mysteries about age eleven, she began writing her own science fiction and mysteries. Because her great fear was running out of these by reading everything her small hometown library had. It took her late husband Pat Killough, though, years later, to convince her to try selling her work. Her first published stories were science fiction and her short story, "Symphony For a Lost Traveler", earned a Hugo Award nomination in 1985.
She used to joke that she wrote SF because she dealt with non-humans every day...spending twenty-seven years as chief technologist in the Radiology Department at Kansas State University's Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital before retiring to write full-time.
Because she loves both SF and mysteries and hated choose between the two genres, her work combines them. Except for one fantasy, The Leopard’s Daughter, most of her novels are mysteries with SF or fantasy elements...with a preference for supernatural detectives: vampire, werewolves, even a ghost. She has set her procedurals in the future, on alien words, and in the country of dark fantasy. Her best known detective is vampire cop Garreth Mikaelian, of Blood Hunt, Bloodlinks, and Blood Games. Five of her novels and a novella are now available as e-books and she is editing more to turn into e-books.
Lee makes her home in Manhattan, Kansas, with her book-dealer husband Denny Riordan, a spunky terrier mix, and a house crammed with books.
She used to joke that she wrote SF because she dealt with non-humans every day...spending twenty-seven years as chief technologist in the Radiology Department at Kansas State University's Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital before retiring to write full-time.
Because she loves both SF and mysteries and hated choose between the two genres, her work combines them. Except for one fantasy, The Leopard’s Daughter, most of her novels are mysteries with SF or fantasy elements...with a preference for supernatural detectives: vampire, werewolves, even a ghost. She has set her procedurals in the future, on alien words, and in the country of dark fantasy. Her best known detective is vampire cop Garreth Mikaelian, of Blood Hunt, Bloodlinks, and Blood Games. Five of her novels and a novella are now available as e-books and she is editing more to turn into e-books.
Lee makes her home in Manhattan, Kansas, with her book-dealer husband Denny Riordan, a spunky terrier mix, and a house crammed with books.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 8, 2020
About 40 years ago, Lee Killough's original version of this novel made quite a stir in the science fiction community for boldly crossing genres and being both good science fiction and a police procedural mystery story. I enjoyed it then, and 40 years later, I enjoyed it all over again in this new version. I would recommend Lee Killough's mystery/police/speculative fiction without reservation to anyone!
The updated technology required some adjusting of the plot twists, but I think if anything she's improved the story. The character dynamics are enjoyable, the cat-and-mouse game with the murderer is suspenseful, and it's just all-in-all fun.
I'd been looking forward to reading Lee Killough's updated and re-visioned "Brill and Matthews" novels for quite a while--but I have been waiting for the paperbacks to come out. This spring I decided there wasn't going to be a paperback (after waiting 5 years), so I finally broke down and bought the ebook.
I both am and am not glad I did. There were ongoing technical difficulties that made this book literally hard to read.
Even after I bought a new Kindle (thinking the old one was the problem), the digital file kept glitching and fast-forwarding to unexpected places. To make matters worse, the digital file wasn't divided into chapters, just two, half-book chunks. This made it annoying and time-consuming to try and figure out what "location" (between 1 and some-odd-thousand) I'd been in, when the glitch sent me random numbers of pages elsewhere. Talk about throwing the reader out of the narrative! I usually had to re-read a bit to find exactly where I'd left off, and get back into the story.
This book was published by a small press, Books We Love, Ltd. I would have expected a much better job of formatting from purported professionals (I also hate the cover, but that's another whole discussion). I have tried not to let my issues with the technology too badly color the review of this really-quite-excellent story!
The updated technology required some adjusting of the plot twists, but I think if anything she's improved the story. The character dynamics are enjoyable, the cat-and-mouse game with the murderer is suspenseful, and it's just all-in-all fun.
I'd been looking forward to reading Lee Killough's updated and re-visioned "Brill and Matthews" novels for quite a while--but I have been waiting for the paperbacks to come out. This spring I decided there wasn't going to be a paperback (after waiting 5 years), so I finally broke down and bought the ebook.
I both am and am not glad I did. There were ongoing technical difficulties that made this book literally hard to read.
Even after I bought a new Kindle (thinking the old one was the problem), the digital file kept glitching and fast-forwarding to unexpected places. To make matters worse, the digital file wasn't divided into chapters, just two, half-book chunks. This made it annoying and time-consuming to try and figure out what "location" (between 1 and some-odd-thousand) I'd been in, when the glitch sent me random numbers of pages elsewhere. Talk about throwing the reader out of the narrative! I usually had to re-read a bit to find exactly where I'd left off, and get back into the story.
This book was published by a small press, Books We Love, Ltd. I would have expected a much better job of formatting from purported professionals (I also hate the cover, but that's another whole discussion). I have tried not to let my issues with the technology too badly color the review of this really-quite-excellent story!
May 17, 2025
This is basically a buddy cop book, but written more in the era of Starsky and Hutch or Tenspeed and Brownshoe (which it predates by a year) than Lethal Weapon (which is nearly a decade later). While it's also a mystery, it's the Columbo type, where the reader knows who done it and how. I got the book when it first came out, read it and loved it, then lost the book in a move over the years and hadn't read it since. Would have replaced it long past but I could not remember the title, just the story. Few years back ran across a mention of it somewhere and put it on my Amazon list, finally got around to buying it.
Enjoyed it about as much this time around. While on the one hand it pretty much buys into the common beliefs of the time (at least when it came to s-f) that people would move past racism, sexism, and the then-current definition of marriage (a not unreasonable assumption, since US culture of the time does not define human reality), unlike a lot of novels back then, this one recognizes that most cultures have an 'insider-outsider' system of some sort. The outsiders here are those who refuse to submit to the government being able to follow their every move via an I.D./credit card jobbie, and so are unregistered.
Brill and Maxwell, the cops, are also reasonably literate, and Maxell looks at the world from a unique perspective, making him very good at seeing through the bad guys' story, while Brill is the more dogged investigator who can work within the system -- and is definitely more interested in staying within the law. They make a good team, at least in this book.
While the science fiction aspects are crucial to the plot, the buddy relationships (Brill's with her former and future partners) and the mystery are the true center of the story. To my mind the story still holds up, despite the the somewhat-outdated, seventies-style future -- but of course I still read s-f from the 1960s and grew up on Jules Verne, so I suppose I have a high tolerance for that sort of thing. But I would think anyone who loves both buddy cop shows and s-f could enjoy this.
Enjoyed it about as much this time around. While on the one hand it pretty much buys into the common beliefs of the time (at least when it came to s-f) that people would move past racism, sexism, and the then-current definition of marriage (a not unreasonable assumption, since US culture of the time does not define human reality), unlike a lot of novels back then, this one recognizes that most cultures have an 'insider-outsider' system of some sort. The outsiders here are those who refuse to submit to the government being able to follow their every move via an I.D./credit card jobbie, and so are unregistered.
Brill and Maxwell, the cops, are also reasonably literate, and Maxell looks at the world from a unique perspective, making him very good at seeing through the bad guys' story, while Brill is the more dogged investigator who can work within the system -- and is definitely more interested in staying within the law. They make a good team, at least in this book.
While the science fiction aspects are crucial to the plot, the buddy relationships (Brill's with her former and future partners) and the mystery are the true center of the story. To my mind the story still holds up, despite the the somewhat-outdated, seventies-style future -- but of course I still read s-f from the 1960s and grew up on Jules Verne, so I suppose I have a high tolerance for that sort of thing. But I would think anyone who loves both buddy cop shows and s-f could enjoy this.
March 24, 2018
Once you get used to the kind of dated look at the future setting and the fancy jargon this was a lot of fun to read. In essence it's a mystery that just happens to be set in a futuristic world that tracks it's citizens by means of their bank/identity cards. I really enjoyed watching Janna Brill work as she tries to keep her new partner on the straight an narrow when he's her complete opposite. There's no real suspense with the mystery because you see from the criminal's perspective at the same time as the cops but the fun is watching how they try to outmaneuver one another to come out on top.
December 5, 2014
1984 grade B+
2004 grade B+
Series book JB1
2004 grade B+
Series book JB1
March 14, 2016
Wanted to make that 3 and a half stars but can't.
A worthy read with a mystery, good action with a couple of twists.
A worthy read with a mystery, good action with a couple of twists.
December 14, 2024
This book was an absolute joy to read. It was fast, fun, futuristic enough to be sci-fi but restrained in its vision, and, pleasing to me, delightfully lacking in sexism. Is the cover not AMAZING?
This is a detective story, but rather than the reader trying to figure out the mystery along with the cops, we already know who the murderer is and what his motivation is. I’ve seen this before but this book really pulls it off. The fun part of the novel is watching how the cops piece together the clues while we cheer them on. The tension lies in not whether they will find the guy, but what happens when they close in.
The characters are great. The villain is easily unlikable with motivations that aren’t the most unique but understandable. The side characters are varied and interesting, with differing backgrounds that show off the interesting future world that Killough has created. The best characters, though, are of course our main character, Janna Brill, and her partner, Mama Maxwell. It’s a pairing that always works well in cop stories - the straight-laced, ambitious, by-the-book cop and the live wire, does stuff based on intuition, and isn’t afraid to cross moral lines cop.
Janna is great. Just because she’s by the book doesn’t mean she’s not tough as nails. She’s feisty and fiery and not afraid to tell people off. Mama is great because he’s super chill yet also super skilled. They are a fun pair and often quite funny together.
What I found fascinating about this book is the attention to detail on the police work, and how the smallest of things leads the pair in the right direction. The world building is just excellent. There are so many fun aspects, from the big stuff like the generation ships to the strange cars and clothes. It’s reminiscent of Blade Runner in a way, but not as dark. It’s just every aspect of the world has been thought through in terms of how it would appear in “the future.”
The book also has some pretty funny stuff in it (including the author bio).
Overall, if you’re looking for an enjoyable classic sci-fi that won’t make you cringe, you should check this out.
This is a detective story, but rather than the reader trying to figure out the mystery along with the cops, we already know who the murderer is and what his motivation is. I’ve seen this before but this book really pulls it off. The fun part of the novel is watching how the cops piece together the clues while we cheer them on. The tension lies in not whether they will find the guy, but what happens when they close in.
The characters are great. The villain is easily unlikable with motivations that aren’t the most unique but understandable. The side characters are varied and interesting, with differing backgrounds that show off the interesting future world that Killough has created. The best characters, though, are of course our main character, Janna Brill, and her partner, Mama Maxwell. It’s a pairing that always works well in cop stories - the straight-laced, ambitious, by-the-book cop and the live wire, does stuff based on intuition, and isn’t afraid to cross moral lines cop.
Janna is great. Just because she’s by the book doesn’t mean she’s not tough as nails. She’s feisty and fiery and not afraid to tell people off. Mama is great because he’s super chill yet also super skilled. They are a fun pair and often quite funny together.
What I found fascinating about this book is the attention to detail on the police work, and how the smallest of things leads the pair in the right direction. The world building is just excellent. There are so many fun aspects, from the big stuff like the generation ships to the strange cars and clothes. It’s reminiscent of Blade Runner in a way, but not as dark. It’s just every aspect of the world has been thought through in terms of how it would appear in “the future.”
The book also has some pretty funny stuff in it (including the author bio).
Overall, if you’re looking for an enjoyable classic sci-fi that won’t make you cringe, you should check this out.
July 31, 2024
The Doppelgänger Gambit is one of those Del Rey paperbacks that I saw frequently on the shelves of new and used book stores that I visited all over SW Houston in the late 70s and through the 80s. I never bought it. Recently I saw an online article describing it as some sort of unsung classic from that era so I decided to read it.
The world building was fun to see. What did an author from 1978 predict for the 21st century now that I can look back on it from the 21st century? Lee Killough had some interesting ideas. But overall the story wasn't very interesting, but that could be a problem of my age and having see too many murder stories already.
The world building was fun to see. What did an author from 1978 predict for the 21st century now that I can look back on it from the 21st century? Lee Killough had some interesting ideas. But overall the story wasn't very interesting, but that could be a problem of my age and having see too many murder stories already.
Read
March 4, 2025I have read this book about half a dozen times. As a police procedural, it is excellent. The setting is Topeka, Kansas in some future time. By the book detective sergeant Janna Brill has a new partner, a totally unconventional detective sergeant Maylon Maxwell (call me Mama).
A colonization contractor has been killed and it's up to Brill and Maxwell to find out who did it.
I'm not saying any more about the story.
This book is one that keeps you interested. It moves fast and is, in my opinion, one of the best of the genre out there.
Brill and Maxwell return in two more books, and I wish she had written more of these. They are that good.
A colonization contractor has been killed and it's up to Brill and Maxwell to find out who did it.
I'm not saying any more about the story.
This book is one that keeps you interested. It moves fast and is, in my opinion, one of the best of the genre out there.
Brill and Maxwell return in two more books, and I wish she had written more of these. They are that good.
April 18, 2023
3 1/2 stars. This is a Columbo-style futuristic police procedural. I enjoyed the conception of the crime, which seemed believably futuristic. The main protagonists, while not drawn in great detail, are sufficient to have personality, are likeable, and are suitably clever. The story is presented well, but I'm just not a personal fan of the Columbo style - I don't really like knowing who, why, how throughout the narrative.
Read
September 26, 2019I don’t know if I could truly rate this book quality wise it’s like a one or two star book. It’s hysterically bad and did not age well. Mama Maxwell though is the only real redeeming quality and he’s barely in this book at all. Overall it was entertaining to read like watching a bad movie.
October 2, 2018
Really 2.5 stars. Other reviews have already said exactly what I thought of the story: this 80's SF comes off dated & silly in terms of computer, phone & media technology considering this earth has space-going technology & cars fly. The slang is fun & so are the two main characters. I hope they get further development in the next installment. I do think the author pushes Libertarian ideals without providing enough details as to why these values are needed for governing the society she has created. No geo-political info is provided, only that social services, like medical care, seem to be provided free (?) if one is a registered & identified citizen. It seems like a lot of the humans are rather vapid & dull.
November 27, 2022
Read after learning about on a Tor.com article about overlooked gems. Strong female lead character, solid police procedural, and some compelling world building. Well worth a read!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews