When interstellar private investigator Richard Hart and his pilot, Eddie Macías, are combing a zetoi city for a fugitive insurance fraudster, the open-and-shut case takes an unexpected and deadly turn.
They return to their spaceship, the Colibri, with a dangerous military secret that threatens to have dire consequences for everyone involved. Conflicts begin to brew, despite travel guide writer turned live-in consultant Alannah Jackson’s eager attempts to keep tempers in check.
As Richard and crew reconnect with a familiar Terran Defense Force intelligence officer, they discover a political game that requires their discretion, and may even throw humanity’s peaceful unity into question.
Join Colibri Investigations for a new adventure full of snarky banter, undercover agents, vendettas, coffee approximations of varying quality, and action straight out of a wendek crime show.There’s no planet too distant, no job too strange, for Colibri Investigations!
Marie Howalt grew up near Copenhagen in Denmark, Scandinavia and decided to become a writer at the age of 11 when the local library failed to deliver an acceptable amount of science fiction and fantasy.
Having graduated with a master’s degree in religion and English studies with a primary focus on speculative literature, Marie wrote as a hobby and worked as a teacher and a translator between English and Danish before changing lanes in life due to chronic illness (post concussion syndrome).
Fast-forward to the present, and you will find Marie writing as much as physically possible. The tales are longer and more complex than the childhood fantasies, but they still take place in the far future or other worlds.
When not writing (or bribing imaginary people to share their stories), Marie is dedicated to being a cat perch, but also enjoys reading and listening to audiobooks as well as drawing, making videos, and collecting and restoring antique fountain pens. Sometimes, you can find Marie pushing art supplies, stationary and fancy pens in one of Copenhagen’s oldest shops.
Marie’s first traditionally published novel came out in 2019, and since then, there has been a steady flow of a new book every year (plus the odd short story). Assassins and Olympians is the second novella about Colibri Investigations, but the trusty little spaceship is already preparing to take flight again, so you won’t have to wait for too long to join the crew on more adventures.
If you want to keep up with Marie’s life and writing and get a healthy dose of cat pictures, please drop by Marie’s Instagram profile @mhowalt. You can also get special perks and previews by newsletter or on Patreon via www.mhowalt.dk
My thoughts: this was a really fun adventure novella, with PI’s Richard and Eddie on the trail of the person who hired an assassin to take Richard out. But despite no longer being a soldier, Richard has skills and before long the assassin is joining the crew of the Colibri, temporarily as he assures an unimpressed Eddie, to assist with finding the person who hired him through a middle man.
There’s plenty of hijinks, kidnappings, arrests, favours for the Terran Defence Force, that thankfully comes with expenses, Eddie’s snack bill alone costs a small fortune, and planets with very weird rules – how many people outside Greece speak Greek?
This was so much fun to read and I hope there’s going to be lots more stories about the crew of the Colibri to come.
Thank you to Marie for sending me a copy to read and review, make sure you stop by her links above and say hi.
ramblingmads 