Nobody’s Baby

Returning to the spaceship HMS Fairweather, the sharply plotted second installment of Waite’s Dorothy Gentleman series (after Murder by Memory) finds the eponymous detective, responsible for handling memory crimes, investigating a case of accidental baby acquisition. It’s supposed to be impossible to conceive aboard the generation ship, but Dorothy’s nephew Ruthie Talmadge and his husband, John, discover a baby boy, whom Ruthie names Peregrine, on their doorstep. Dorothy must hurry to uncover the boy’s parentage and determine whether the ship is in for a population increase it’s not at all prepared to handle. She first tracks down Peregrine’s mother, Flora Tilburn, who works in flickers, a movie-like technology that directly beams a projectionist’s memories onto a screen to entertain viewers. Flora, unfortunately, has no memory of becoming a mother, leaving Dorothy with an even trickier knot to untangle. Her investigation also stirs up complicated legal and ethical questions about Peregrine’s rights as an unexpected passenger, as well as Dorothy’s crush on Violet St. Owen, who was a person of interest in the murder case central to the prior installment. Waite is just as successful balancing sci-fi worldbuilding and twisty mystery here as in the first installment, all while probing complex themes of memory and personhood. Fans will not be disappointed. (Mar.)