At the crossroads of a gold rush western and science fiction you'll find Alex Lomax, private investigator. Most residents of Mars dream of finding Martian fossils, returning to Earth fabulously wealthy, and virtually immortal in a synthetic body. Alex is a wanted man back on Earth so he's stuck in the one grungy port city Mars has to offer when a dame (synthetic) walks into his office. We have now boarded the roller coaster ride of crosses and double-crosses that makes up Red Planet Blues. The dame's husband is missing and since the lazy and corrupt Martian police are doing nothing she hires Alex to find him. The deeper he digs the stranger this case gets and the ultimate motherlode of Martian artifacts is on the line. Alex finds that the trail of greed and murder leads back to the first discovery of fossils on Mars and he's now caught in the middle. At least he's getting paid by the hour and if a couple of fossils wander away from the motherlode who can blame him?
Red Planet Blues is thoroughly entertaining. The action is very well paced with plenty of twists and turns. Sawyer manages to tie everything together so there are no loose ends. Even the faint mystery about Alex's past is revealed to us in the end. The science is a bit dubious in places (downloading your brain into a synthetic one?) but all is forgiven when a Martian land rover is used as a weapon. Alex loves the old noir detective and treasure hunting movies so there are plenty of references and quotes to add atmosphere.
Robert J. Sawyer is Canadian and an award winning author in Science Fiction. The Red Planet Blues audiobook is narrated by Christian Rummel.