Killing Is My Business

June 1, 2017
Ray, the last robot in the world, is a licensed PI reprogrammed to be a contract killer, which pays better. Ray's memory tape is only 24 hours long, so while this is technically the second book in the Ray Electromatic series, it can be easily read as a standalone since Ray has to be reminded each morning of everything that has happened before. The plot has a little of everything for fans of classic sf and hardboiled mysteriescorrupt city officials, shady real-estate moguls, the mafia, foreign-born evil scientists, and of course, robots. But while the fast-paced story will grab readers' attention, what they will stay for is Ray, whose unique perspective and personality shine as bright as his metal exterior. While this is an easy title to hand-sell to fans of the golden age when science fiction and gritty detectives overlapped, it will also appeal to readers of contemporary, thoughtful genre mashups with compelling and unique narrators, like Ben Winter's Last Policeman trilogy and Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn (1999).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)