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The Strange Loop
Los Angeles, 2039. The Disincorporated Zone teeters on the brink of civil war, but for phenomenological inquisitor Erasmus Keane and his reluctant partner Blake Fowler, that’s just the beginning of their problems. A cryptic trickster has been leading them through a maze of riddles, each clue drawing them deeper into a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the DZ.
As gang factions prepare for bloodshed and the city’s power brokers pull unseen strings, Keane and Fowler race against time to prevent an even greater catastrophe—one that threatens to unravel the fragile balance of power in LA itself. But is their unseen adversary guiding them toward the truth, or merely playing a game they were never meant to win?
In The Strange Loop, the final volume in the Erasmus Keane trilogy, nothing is what it seems, and every answer only leads to more questions.
As gang factions prepare for bloodshed and the city’s power brokers pull unseen strings, Keane and Fowler race against time to prevent an even greater catastrophe—one that threatens to unravel the fragile balance of power in LA itself. But is their unseen adversary guiding them toward the truth, or merely playing a game they were never meant to win?
In The Strange Loop, the final volume in the Erasmus Keane trilogy, nothing is what it seems, and every answer only leads to more questions.
235 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 13, 2025
9 people are currently reading
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About the author
Robert Kroese
70 books629 followersRobert Kroese's sense of irony was honed growing up in Grand Rapids, Michigan - home of the Amway Corporation and the Gerald R. Ford Museum, and the first city in the United States to fluoridate its water supply. In second grade, he wrote his first novel, the saga of Captain Bill and his spaceship Thee Eagle. This turned out to be the high point of his academic career. After barely graduating from Calvin College in 1992 with a philosophy degree, he was fired from a variety of jobs before moving to California, where he stumbled into software development. As this job required neither punctuality nor a sense of direction, he excelled at it. In 2009, he called upon his extensive knowledge of useless information and love of explosions to write his first novel, Mercury Falls. Since then, he has written 18 more books.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 14, 2025
THE STRANGE LOOP by Robert Kroese is the third and probably final book in the Erasmus Keane cyberpunk detective series. The premise of "What if Sherlock Holmes and Watson lived in a cyberpunk universe" is a bit off kilter but I absolutely love it. Its a lot tamer and PG-13 than your more edgy Cyberpunk 2077 fair but the combination works well. The previous two books of THE BIG SHEEP and THE LAST IOTA are also ones that I recommend.
The premise is that social unrest and economic collapse resulted in Los Angeles walling off a huge chunk of the city as the D.Z. The Disincorporated Zone is pretty much like Escape from New York ruled by gangs and weirdoes trying to live off the grid. In a bit of a nod to realism, the idea was a huge mistake and everyone has been trying to reincorporate it ever since. The problem is that the locals are under the control of numerous powerful gangs who take advantage of the lack of legal authority to run their businesses (primarily outside the DZ).
Erasmus Keane and his partner, Robert Fowler, are always moving in and out of the DZ to deal with the many problems that pop out of it. Recently, things have come to a head with one of the warlords having been killed and a civil war ready to happen among the others. The mercenaries hired by Los Angeles are stuck between taking advantage of this to finally end the DZ. Erasmus and Robert are hired to investigate the warlord's murder in order prevent said civil war. The problem? It's blindingly obvious that this is a set up.
What follows is a complicated conspiracy being unraveled about the DZ, the mercenaries, psychic experimentation, and an enormous real estate scam that wraps up the majority of plots from the previous installments of the series. In this age of serialized fiction and cliffhangers, it's nice to have a book series completely finish its major plotlines. However, I do think it wraps up a bit too neatly by the end.
This is a more interesting version of Erasmus Keane as we actually do get to see several of the man's vulnerabilities ans reminders that while he is a super genius, he's not Sherlock Holmes and his persona as a master detective is an affection as much as who he is. We also get Robert's awareness that he has grown as a person enough that is oftentimes ahead of Erasmus in this investigation due to his ability to network with the people involved.
The politics of the Erasmus Keane series make no real sense. Los Angeles doesn't seem to be any real worse for wear despite the fact that it has an enormous lawless hellhole in the center of it and another portion partitioned off due to a dirty bomb. I can't imagine billionaires aren't chomping at the bit to get back unimaginable wealth in real estate but that element only barely gets touched upon (and dismissed). Still, I'm willing to ignore a lot for a fun story and this is an entertaining novel from beginning to end with characters I like.
Definitely recommended.
The premise is that social unrest and economic collapse resulted in Los Angeles walling off a huge chunk of the city as the D.Z. The Disincorporated Zone is pretty much like Escape from New York ruled by gangs and weirdoes trying to live off the grid. In a bit of a nod to realism, the idea was a huge mistake and everyone has been trying to reincorporate it ever since. The problem is that the locals are under the control of numerous powerful gangs who take advantage of the lack of legal authority to run their businesses (primarily outside the DZ).
Erasmus Keane and his partner, Robert Fowler, are always moving in and out of the DZ to deal with the many problems that pop out of it. Recently, things have come to a head with one of the warlords having been killed and a civil war ready to happen among the others. The mercenaries hired by Los Angeles are stuck between taking advantage of this to finally end the DZ. Erasmus and Robert are hired to investigate the warlord's murder in order prevent said civil war. The problem? It's blindingly obvious that this is a set up.
What follows is a complicated conspiracy being unraveled about the DZ, the mercenaries, psychic experimentation, and an enormous real estate scam that wraps up the majority of plots from the previous installments of the series. In this age of serialized fiction and cliffhangers, it's nice to have a book series completely finish its major plotlines. However, I do think it wraps up a bit too neatly by the end.
This is a more interesting version of Erasmus Keane as we actually do get to see several of the man's vulnerabilities ans reminders that while he is a super genius, he's not Sherlock Holmes and his persona as a master detective is an affection as much as who he is. We also get Robert's awareness that he has grown as a person enough that is oftentimes ahead of Erasmus in this investigation due to his ability to network with the people involved.
The politics of the Erasmus Keane series make no real sense. Los Angeles doesn't seem to be any real worse for wear despite the fact that it has an enormous lawless hellhole in the center of it and another portion partitioned off due to a dirty bomb. I can't imagine billionaires aren't chomping at the bit to get back unimaginable wealth in real estate but that element only barely gets touched upon (and dismissed). Still, I'm willing to ignore a lot for a fun story and this is an entertaining novel from beginning to end with characters I like.
Definitely recommended.
June 15, 2025
Plenty of chaos and misdirection.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews