Scorched Earth

A MURDER ON MARS LEADS TO HELL ON EARTH

The year is 2188 and the Earth-long-ago abandoned for Mars by the plutocrats-is scorched by poverty, disease and environmental collapse. Meanwhile, the red planet is a flourishing playground for the Five Families who, thanks to Halo-an advanced AI-control everything and everyone on Earth, including Crucial Larsen, a disillusioned labor cop.

The wealthy elite of Mars don't know that on his last trip up-universe, Crucial stumbled onto a secret that could destroy them. Yet, despite fervent pleas from his sister (a leader in the resistance), Crucial believes fighting back against the Five Families is a fool's game destined for failure-or worse. Plus, he never wants to set foot on that damn planet again.

Then Melinda, his long-lost love and a staff scientist on Mars, begs for his help clearing her fiancée of a murder charge. Crucial jumps on the next quantum rocket, hoping maybe this time he can patch things up with Mel. His investigation ultimately leads back to Earth's radiation-blasted sunbelt, where cannibal lizard-people-a climate change mitigation genetic experiment gone terribly wrong-hold the key to a different future, if only Crucial can stay alive long enough to unlock it.

Blending science-fiction with a classic, hard-boiled detective story, Scorched Earth is the second book in The Halo Trilogy, an irreverent series set on post-colonial Mars, and the ninth novel by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall.