As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite sub-genres is the science fiction mystery. I love the interplay between the gritty detective story and the fabulous future. But it’s not always a fabulous future. In Alex Hughes new book, Clean, the world has gone through some wars and is slowly getting better. The technology is not trusted and now there is a serial killer who might be protected by the powerful Telepath’s Guild. It’s an interesting premise and one that mostly delivers. Let’s see what happens.

First things first, it’s a first person narrated story and no addresses the narrator by name, so you never find out what his name is. What you do find out is that he used to be a powerful member of the Telepath’s Guild. He had a rare power that allowed him to teach difficult tasks to multiple people at the same time. This sped up the training of the Telepaths and allowed the Guild to make a lot of money. Then, he became a junkie. It wasn’t completely his fault, but enough that he was kicked out of the Guild. He’s taken a job as a interrogator for the local police. He can use his telepathy to help get confessions and help out the police. But neither side (the police or the Guild) really trust him and his AA sponsor has to work had to keep him clean.

He gets brought in, with his partner Isabella Cherabino, to what the police believe is a serial murder investigation. He notices some strange goings on and quickly determines that the murderer is someone involved with the Guild (or at least has high Guild class powers). This mean that the police might need to work with the Guild and neither side likes the other. Then our unnamed narrator gets a flash of precognition and sees himself being killed by the murderer. When this is confirmed by the Guild, we now have a deadline to solve the case before our narrator ends up dead.

The book does a good job detailing the main character (well, except for his name). The main supporting character, his partner Cherabino, is decently characterized, but seems more like the standard gruff partner than a real person at times. I wasn’t impressed with the ending and the story didn’t go into a ton of details about what the world of the future is like (except for the details about the past Tech Wars and their reluctance to embrace technology). But the story is a fun ride and carries you along past the glitches and holes in the story. Overall it was a fun read that I liked but didn’t love. I’m definitely interested in reading more in this series and I hope that the author spends a little more time fleshing out the world going forward. Mildly recommended.