NINTH STEP STATION – Episode 5: The Deadly Defection by Malka Older

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Ninth Step Station by Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi, Curtis C. Chen
Published by Serial Box on January 8 2019
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher

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A few notes about how I’m going to review this series. There are ten episodes, and my plan is to put a review up each Wednesday as they become available. I’ve never done this before, so let’s see how it goes! Also, I won’t be giving star ratings to the individual episodes, but I will rate the series overall when I’m finished.

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About Ninth Step Station:

A local cop. A US Peacekeeper. A divided Tokyo.

Years of disaster and conflict have left Tokyo split between great powers.

In the city of drone-enforced borders, bodymod black markets, and desperate resistance movements, US peacekeeper Emma Higashi is assigned to partner with Tokyo Metropolitan Police Detective Miyako Koreda.

Together, they must race to solve a series of murders that test their relationship and threaten to overturn the balance of global power. And amid the chaos, they each need to decide what they are willing to do for peace.

Episode 1: The Faceless Body

Episode 2: The Bodiless Arm

Episode 3: The Fallen Executive

Episode 4: The Blackout Killer

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For such short episodes, the authors of Ninth Step Station are managing to pack a lot into each one. The Deadly Defection is no exception. Author Malka Older tackles two crimes this time and delves deeper into the political situation among the Japanese, Chinese and Americans, who are still trying to find a way to live peacefully amongst each other but not always succeeding.

The story opens with an assassination attempt. American ambassador Charles Yardley—Emma’s boss—pulls out his vapor pipe for a relaxing smoke, but when he inhales, it’s not the Earl Grey flavor he was expecting, but the bitter taste of poison. Someone has tampered with his vapor, and it’s only because of a special poison-absorbing molar that Charles survives. At the same time, a gunshot breaks the silence down the street from Charles’ home, and when Emma runs to the scene, she discovers a man standing over the body of a dead woman, begging for asylum. The man, named Zheng Wen, claims that the woman was shot by accident when he struggled to take the gun away from her, but Miyako doesn’t think his story adds up.

Miyako is determined to flush out the truth in the interrogation room with Zheng, while Charles has asked Emma to quietly find out more about the poison that nearly killed him, which may lead them to the responsible party.

Charles hasn’t been in the story much up to this point, but I did enjoy learning more about him and his relationships with the Japanese and Chinese. The fact that someone has tried to kill him—someone who has the ability to infiltrate his home—leads him and Emma to speculate why that person might want Charles out of the way, and of course who it might be. We don’t get those answers in this episode, but Older has opened up a can of worms that is sure to appear in future storylines.

The resolution of the murder has a bit of a twist ending, and I liked how it brings the political situation to the forefront. In fact, politics play a part in both the murder and the assassination attempt, and although they probably aren’t linked, I loved seeing a consistent theme in the story.

On the personal front, we only get one scene between Emma and Miyako that explores their still tense relationship, but this time Miyako makes sure to clearly state her opinion of Kensuke, the man who Emma has just started dating, and the man who Miyako used to date. I was very happy that Kensuke wasn’t in this episode at all (I really don’t like him!), and my respect for Miyako grew when she told Emma how sexist he is.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Deadly Defection. We get a little of everything—murder, an attempted poisoning, some very cool futuristic tech (the tooth!), solid detective work and political intrigue. The end of Episode 5 marks the halfway point in Ninth Step Station, and from this point on I’m looking forward to seeing all the threads of the story start to come together.

Check back next Wednesday for a review of Episode 6: The Stolen Xiaohái.

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Are you intrigued? You can purchase the entire series for $13.99! Click here now to learn more.

About Serial Box:

Serial Box brings everything that’s awesome about TV (easily digestible episodes, team written, new content every week) to what was already cool about books (well-crafted stories, talented authors, enjoyable anywhere).

Like TV, we release a new episode of our serials every week and serials typically run for seasons of 10-16 weeks. Easy to pick up, episodes are enjoyable on their own but build over the course of the season to tell a bigger story. Each episode is available in ebook and audio and takes about 40 minutes to enjoy.