A Study in Black Brew by Marie Howalt Format: eARC
Source: author
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genres: science fiction, science fiction mystery, Sherlock Holmes
Pages: 153
Published by Spaceboy Books on May 22, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
“They say life is a string of chances held together with grit and guided by passion, and who am I to disagree?”
Kellieth ReinAraneinth was headed for a career as a field chemist on a newly settled planet when their dreams and ambitions were crushed by coincidences and chronic illness.
They return broke to the wendek homeworld, Ganmak, where everyone’s basic needs are covered, but import luxuries like Kellieth’s favorite human-made beverage, black brew, is costly.
While piecing together a new life and recovering from their ordeals, Kellieth ends up sharing lodgings with the attractive, enigmatic, and infuriating Raithan WeinZalneinth.
When a human is found dead next to an alarming message on the wall in an empty house, Kellieth gets caught up in a gruesome mystery involving Raithan and the local peace corps.
Who is the human? How did he die? What is Raithan hiding? And when will Kellieth have the time to catch their breath?
My Review:
Kellieth ReinAraneinth is caught between multiple rocks and abundant hard places, as when the story begins they can barely catch their breath. Literally. They may not be human but their breathing and sense of smell are both compromised by on-the-job chemical exposure resulting in a condition that may not quite BE chronic asthma, but is close enough as to make no difference.
But it does, both in the sense that Kellieth’s health is compromised, and in the sense that they have lost one of their senses. Wendeks like Kellieth rely on their sense of smell every bit as humans rely on sight to gather clues to their environment as well as the ‘people’ they interact with. Except for Kellieth. Even their sense of taste is muted, which is where that ‘black brew’ comes in.
Because, of course, it’s coffee. Or at least as near to coffee as this far-flung, multi-species galaxy can manage for any humans who have settled on the wendek homeworld, Ganmak. Coffee has a strong and distinctive taste AND aroma. So strong, in fact, that even with compromised senses, Kellieth can sense that black brew nearly as well as they used to be able to sense their whole world.
Kellieth has returned to the homeworld to get their health back – if they can. They were part of an expedition to begin settlement of a newly available planet – a job that requires considerably more activity and exertion than Kellieth is currently capable of. At least without passing out.
They have enough to live on if they are frugal, but nothing extra for luxuries, while yet not really capable of going back to work even in the relatively safe laboratory setting that would be the usual jobsite for their work as a chemist.
Which is where their next-door neighbor, Raithan WeinZalneinth, comes in. First by helping them move in and preventing them from passing out on the front step as they did so. But also later, by providing Keillieth with someone to share occasional meals with – and most especially as a focus for their curiosity. Scientific and otherwise.
Raithan reveals his secrets first by hints and clues and, frankly, by showing off more than a bit. But eventually by taking Kellieth with him to view a dead body. This is far from the usual method of telling a friend what you do for a living, but Raithan enjoys little more than he does a dramatic reveal. Or, seemingly, drama of any kind.
That Raithan is an investigator for the Federal Wendek Security Agency, and he is VERY good at his job. Which both explains his propensity for telling people all about themselves upon first meeting, and his secretiveness. Raithan is the investigator who gets called in when the regular ‘peace corps’ (read as police) are stumped.
Raithan needs an assistant. Kellieth needs a job that they can perform with compromised health, AND they have the kind of curious, scientific, logically ordered mind that can do the job he needs and do it well. If they can get past Raithan’s initial, and rather dramatic, test of their abilities, that is.
All Raithan has to do is convince her to come along for what will turn out to be a rather dangerous ride. And make sure that Keillieth survives it – no matter what risks he has to take for himself.
Escape Rating B: The title might seem familiar, like it’s ringing a distant bell that you can’t quite place. Or that it sounds like something you recognize but isn’t quite it.
It might come into focus if you change the ‘Black Brew’ to Scarlet. Or Pink. Or Sherlock. A Study in Scarlet marked the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Countless pastiche writers have been unable to resist the impulse to begin their own Holmesian or Holmes-like series with similar titles, from A Study in Honor by Claire O’Dell to A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey to A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas and even A Study in Sherlock, the first in a series of collections of stories inspired by the Holmes canon. TV adaptations of the ‘Great Detective’ are not immune to this tendency as the first episode of the TV series Sherlock in 2010 was “A Study in Pink”.
In other words, A Study in Black Brew is an homage to that iconic detective duo, and I’m such a sucker for Holmes and Holmes-like stories that I couldn’t resist this book at all – and didn’t even try. If you like SF mystery – and I do – it may also remind you of another SFnal detective duo, Inspector Mossa and Scholar Pleiti. If you haven’t read their first outing, The Mimicking of Known Successes, it is an excellent readalike for A Study in Black Brew. And if you’ve already read that, I think you’ll like this and vice versa.
Keillieth and Raithan are not slavish copies of their more famous counterparts, rather the story takes the originals as a stepping off point – and occasionally the opportunity for a bit of an in-joke – to tell a fascinating murder mystery story that owes as much to its futurist time and place as it does to its progenitors.
The murders that these detectives have to solve are as twisty as any their originals might have tackled, but Raithan manages to be both more dramatically inclined and less forthcoming about his deductions than Holmes ever was. However, his tendency to use people for his own – albeit investigative – ends without fully informing them of the danger to themselves – is spot on.
As a reader, as much as I loved the story – and I did, and as much as I got caught up in the investigation – and ditto, I didn’t feel fully grounded in their world or in the fact that these characters were other than human. Also their future seemed a bit too similar to our present. I know we don’t know what we don’t know yet, but the worldbuilding feels like it could use more depth. Howsomever, I didn’t learn until after finishing this book that it is not JUST a Holmes-a-like story but is also a spinoff from the author’s Colibri Investigations series of SF mysteries. Which, OF COURSE, now I need to dive into, beginning with The Stellar Snow Job, as soon as I can manage it.
All of that being said, I still had an absolutely grand time with Kellieth and Raithan, and I’d love to see them in another investigation so that I can learn more about them, the future they live in, and the world they call home.
