Author Chris Fitzgerald has created a world part hardboiled P.I., part science fiction.
WW III had ended in 2021 and the remnants left of the British Isles had begun shutting itself off from the rest of the world. London was gone and much of the island was irradiated. The clean parts had walled themselves off and set up individual governments. The wastelands in between were left to their own devices. The only way in or out was by air. Religion was banned as it was deemed the cause of most wars.
The province of Manchester was one such enclave. The time is the late twenty-first century.
Brynn Hollister, ex-journalist, works as a P.I., mostly divorce cases. He carries an Eagle Mark XX plasma .44 in a shoulder holster, drinks the stuff that passes for liquor(quickly made, as no real distilling is done anymore; the real, old, stuff is expensive), and drives a cheap electric car called a Fedora(nice touch there).
One night he stops a reckless young woman from suicide and learns she’s a rich girl, raised, her brother and her, by their grandfather after the death of their parents. He takes a job watching her for a week until the regular minder finishes other obligations.
And it lands him into a rapidly deteriorating situation involving murder, attempts on his own life, a missing brother, and Brynn’s efforts to unravel it all just keep him off balance and a step ahead of the Peacemakers(the cops), one especially, a detective he once helped out of a dicey situation that had saved his career and ruined Brynn’s as a journalist. It wasn’t cutting much ice with the cop, he getting pressure from above.
Nicely developed detective story with all the trappings of science fiction.
Recommended and can be found HERE.
It was supposed to be a routine surveillance job. P.I. Brynn Hollister was supposed to film a transaction in an alley by a brothel, then turn the recording over to his employer. 
His part would be over.
But it turned into something more.
Greek/Crete restaurant owner Yanni Hovoli lived in the Province of Manchester, But he had family back in Crete and a raid on the family compound had resulted in two family heirlooms being stolen. Two valuable jewels that had a long history in his family. Word had reached him they were being brought into Manchester to be sold. Hovoli wanted Brynn to film the deal and they would handle it after that.
Brynn recorded the deal going down. And also got the murder of the man bringing them in as well. Then someone broke into his apartment wanting his camera and tried to kill him.
Kind of pissed Brynn off. Only one man knew he had recorded the transaction and when he confronted him about it, Hovoli offered him twice the original price to forget the whole thing. Even though Brynn couldn’t deliver his part of the deal.
But as with all good P.I.s, Brynn Hollister couldn’t let it go. Someone had tried to kill him.
Then when he finds the first killer dead, apparently a suicide, though that was to obvious, and the Peacemakers(cops) quickly sweep it all up into a neat bundle, Brynn knows something big is going on.
Another fine futuristic/noir crime thriller and can be found HERE.
I like these two novels. A SF/Crime mix works for me.
