Recovery Man

When a Recovery Man kidnaps Rhonda Shindo after tormenting her brilliant thirteen-year-old daughter, Talia, the authorities on Jupiter's moon Callisto search for Rhonda, while her employers, trying to gain custody of Talia, make a shocking discovery that sheds new light on this case. Original.

Rusch continues her provocative interplanetary detective series with healthy doses of planet-hopping intrigue, heady legal dilemmas and well-drawn characters. On Jupiter's moon Callisto, Hadad Yu, a glorified bounty hunter known as a Recovery Man, kidnaps Rhonda Shindo for delivery to the alien Gyonnese as payback for a reneged legal settlement. Meanwhile, Shindo's preteen daughter, Talia, has just discovered that she's a clone of her mother's birth-daughter; left behind, she faces a doubly confusing world as lawyers, cops and her mother's employer fight over child-custody rights. Meanwhile, Miles Flint, series protagonist and PI-like Retrieval Artist, discovers a secret in his dead mentor's files—a secret that suggests his daughter, long thought dead, may be alive somewhere on Callisto. Rusch creates instantly sympathetic characters in a convincingly fragmented future wherein the petty mistakes of one culture translate to heinous crimes in another. Though Flint's role this time around is meager (largely following the proverbial paper trail), alternating perspectives help other characters transcend their stock types; damsel-in-distress Rhonda proves refreshingly manipulative, and even the villainous Recovery Man wrestles with his convictions. Science-fiction fans should expect to be hooked. (Sept.)
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After his mentor's murder, Miles Flint discovers ever more of her secrets. A recovery man (not as ethically reprehensible as a tracker nor as careful as a retrieval artist) kidnaps Rhonda Shindo and leaves daughter Talia trapped in a closet. Discoveries and felonies converge after Talia escapes and calls Armstrong's top law firm, triggering events that shake to the core the Aleyd corporation and Earth law. While Talia's protectively detained, Aleyd seeks custody of her; the recovery man delivers Rhonda to aliens; and Miles goes to Callisto and discovers more about what led him to become a retrieval artist. A nifty series cooks on. Schroeder, Regina