Chris McKinney (1)

McKinney, Chris. Midnight, Water City. Water City No. 1. Soho Crime, 2021.
Chris McKinney is not a writer known for near-future science fiction. Most of his novels have been character-driven stories about underclass life in Hawaii. In Midnight, Water City he has written a noir mystery set in a 22nd-century underwater city. The body of the world’s most famous scientist, revered for singlehandedly saving the world from a calamitous asteroid strike, has been discovered cut into small pieces. Her sometime bodyguard becomes a suspect, but he is also uniquely qualified to investigate. He is an unhappy man with a troubled marriage, traumatic memories of his violent military career, and guilt about the ruthless methods he employed protecting his client and his failure to protect her in the end. In other ways, he is not a standard noir detective. He is eighty years old, color blind, with synesthesia that lets him perceive musical sounds as colors. The synesthesia also gives him an uncanny ability to perceive a green aura around potential murder victims and murderers. This psychic ability should remind science fiction readers of Larry Niven’s Gil the Arm. The novel’s world-building is a bit sketchy but intriguing. Much of the population has moved underwater to shield itself from deadly solar flares. Society is just recovering from the panic caused by the impending asteroid strike. One detail I like is an apartment full of objects made from plastics reclaimed from the ocean. The plot is messy, but I am reminded that noir writers from Raymond Chandler to David Lynch have created successful stories whose plots made little rational sense. In the end, Midnight, Water City achieves an uneasy balance between the rational demands of near-future science fiction and the more surreal elements of its noir mystery. Four stars.… (més)