This is a small blemish in an otherwise very solid page-turner. Readers are left with a resolution that’s original but feels forced into too few pages to work properly. The 'thriller mode' is a good way to begin our look at Madeline Ashby’s third and latest novel, Company Town. Unfortunately, Ashby (the Machine Dynasty series) twists the plot one too many times by the end. COMPANY TOWN by Madeline Ashby Lately I’ve been noticing that thriller tropes and sensibilities are turning up more and more in the science fiction field. The world is an updated version of Raymond Chandler’s, with gray morals and broken characters, and Hwa’s internal monologue has just the right balance of introspection and wit. Company Town is full of those ideas that are brilliant because of their simplicity, and engaging because not many writers can ‘go there’ and keep things plausible. Hwa is an immediately likable protagonist who isn’t afraid to shatter rules-or bones.

When an obscenely rich family with unusual views buys the entire town, Hwa’s brought into their family affairs, which include multiple murders.

She wants cybernetic enhancements, but her uncaring mother won’t let her get them. Hwa does pretty well for herself as a bodyguard for the sex workers who populate a self-contained community/oil rig off the eastern coast of Canada. Ashby smoothly brings mass market noir detective fiction into the near future, but she struggles to resolve her story satisfactorily. New Arcadia is a city sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family - Lynch Ltd.

Company Town by Madeline Ashby