The “cozy” label for subgenres has been tossed around a lot lately, ever since the success of Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes series kicked off a fervor for “cozy fantasy” and discourse began over what other genres might get in on the hype. But Olivia Waite takes the term right back to its roots by simply transposing the tropes and trappings of the original cozy genre—cozy mystery—onto a science fiction setting. I’ve found for several years now that Olivia Waite’s historical romance novels (like The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows and The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics) make for perfect comfort reading. So though Murder by Memory is her first foray into both sci-fi and mystery, I believe, it’s no surprise that she would find her home amongst the cozy. This bite-sized novella (it’s barely one hundred pages) came out last month and appears to be the first in a series, so I look forward to seeing cozy sci-fi become a growing trend.
Murder by Memory follows Dorothy Gentleman, a ship detective aboard the interstellar generation ship HMS Fairweather. Rather than be put in stasis for their multi-century journey to their new home world, the Fairweather’s passengers live out multiple lifetimes by uploading their consciousness into memory-books so they can be re-downloaded into new bodies when one body dies. Despite the impermanence of death, murders do still occasionally happen, requiring ship detectives to investigate. But this time is different: someone has found a way to erase memory-books. Dorothy, who was resting between bodies, would have been erased for good if it weren’t for emergency protocols put in place by her nephew that immediately dumped her consciousness into the nearest body. That body happens to have belonged to a bank clerk named Gloria Vowell, whose business partner Janet Dodds has just been found dead in her bathtub. Is Dorothy inhabiting the body of a murderer? It can’t be a coincidence that a corpse shows up around the same time several memory-books were wiped. Just how deep does this conspiracy go? Dorothy embarks upon an investigation that will take her into the elite clubs of the ship’s intellectuals, the small dramas of fiber arts and fashion design, and the obscure motives that could drive someone to murder even in an idyllic society where everyone’s basic needs are met.
Murder by Memory makes the familiar fresh again by taking genre tropes that are fairly worn and clichéd and giving them new context. Take our sleuth, herself, Dorothy Gentleman. She’s an elderly spinster sleuth following the pattern of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Stuart Palmer’s Hildegarde Withers, and Dolores Hitchens’s Rachel Murdock. Except, when everyone on board the ship is going on three centuries, “elderly” is a relative term. In fact, Dorothy has just been plopped into the young and spry body of Gloria, but she maintains a sense of being elderly at heart, constantly marveling at her unexpectedly limber joints. She is also weighed down by a sorrow that comes with age, having had to let go of a loved one she spent a lifetime with. Dorothy is not a spinster in the sense of having always been single; rather, she had a wife for many decades who now is no longer in her life. Dorothy’s spinsterhood is also expressed through her love of knitting, a character trait she shares with Miss Marple. Her knowledge of fiber arts becomes important to the plot when she discovers that Gloria’s erstwhile lover owns a yarn shop. While the protagonists of cozy mysteries are traditionally amateur sleuths, Dorothy does hold an official role as detective. However, the role is fairly informal with no direct connection to law enforcement (which exists only in a limited capacity aboard this edenic ship). Dorothy chose the role on a whim, with no prior experience or expertise, yet her observant nature and aunt-like charm make her the perfect person for the job.
For all its devotion to classic mystery tropes, the novella also celebrates its science fiction aspect by imagining creative new technologies. Apart from the aforementioned memory-books that are appropriately stored in the ship’s Library (where romantic partners can physically represent their love by choosing to be shelved together—adorable), my favorite sci-fi invention in this story is the concept of memory cocktails. As the centuries pass and the Fairweather’s inhabitants decant their memories into new body after new body, people’s sensory memories of Earth begin to fade. To counteract this, Dorothy’s genius nephew invented memory liquors, which are imbibed in place of alcohol. Mixed into custom cocktails by skilled bartenders, these memory liquors immerse the drinker in sensory memories like a summer storm or autumnal evening. The author’s vivid descriptions will make you wish you could try a sip!
If you love cozy mysteries, hopeful sci-fi, or just seeing how authors can play with and blend genres, then definitely check out Murder by Memory. You can find it on shelves now at your favorite local retailer or buy a copy online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve already read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments!