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.
Murder By Memory by Olivia Waite Series: Dorothy Gentleman #1
Published by Tordotcom on March 18 2025
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 112
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A generation ship is the setting for this cozy space mystery, a series opener that explores memories and leaving home.
Murder By Memory is a fun, imaginative generation ship story with an intriguing mystery at the center and the perfect book to curl up with for a couple of hours. This is my first time reading Olivia Waite, and it certainly won’t be my last, I absolutely loved her writing style. Waite packs a lot into such a short novella, and I was impressed with how she managed to hit all the important story elements—characterization, pacing, world-building and emotional punch—without skimping on the mystery.
Dorothy Gentleman is a passenger aboard the Fairweather (Ferry for short!), a ship headed to a distant planet. The ship has already been traveling for three hundred years, and has many more centuries to go before it reaches its destination. Dorothy and the other ten thousand passengers and crew each have a memory book in the ship’s vast library. These books contain each person’s memories and personality and can be updated whenever necessary. Whenever someone dies, they are given a new body and their memories are uploaded from the book.
Dorothy has decided to “shelve” herself after her last body died, and she’s been resting in the library for two years. But one day she wakes up to find herself in a strange body, and not one she chose. She’s in the body of Gloria Vowell, another passenger on the ship. Ferry tells her that somehow Dorothy’s memory book was erased, and in order to save her, Ferry had to upload her memories into the nearest body (Gloria’s). Not only that, but there’s been a death on the ship, and the two things could be connected.
What follows is a twisty mystery as Dorothy (who also just happens to be the ship’s detective) investigates the murder, why her memory book was erased, and Gloria’s involvement in the whole thing.
My favorite part of this book was the world-building, and while I’ve ready dozens of generation ship stories, this is the first time I’ve come across such a unique idea. The fact that the passengers are “reborn” after each lifetime, to continue living and working on the ship until it arrives at its destination, was fascinating. The ship itself is like a city, with housing, businesses and entertainment, lit artificially to mimic the real world. All of this, plus the library full of memory books added up to a very cool world.
And that isn’t the only time memories come into play. One of my favorite elements is a special cocktail that evokes specific memories from the passengers’ time on Earth. Memory artists are people trained to mix these cocktails which, when consumed, give the person drinking it whatever memory they are craving, like the feeling of a summer day (sun on their face, a breeze blowing, birds chirping, etc). This gave the story a nice feeling of nostalgia, since these memories are things that the passengers will probably never experience again.
Dorothy is a wonderful character with a bit of Miss Marple to her. When she winds up in Gloria’s body, there are some funny scenes where she’s going around the ship questioning people, but everyone thinks she’s Gloria, of course. Gloria works in a bank on the ship, so now Dorothy has access to her files and passwords. Even though all of Dorothy’s friends know she’s a detective, it was fun to watch her do her job in someone else’s body. The mystery itself has lots of twists and turns and Dorothy is brilliant at making intuitive leaps and connecting all the dots.
I loved the more personal and emotional moments as well. Dorothy has a sad break-up in her past (one reason she wanted to rest on the shelves for a while). There’s a bit of possible romance when she meets a woman who owns a yarn shop, who may or may not be the murderer (of course Dorothy hopes she isn’t!) And speaking of yarn, Dorothy knits, which adds a bit of a cozy feel to the story.
I enjoyed my time spent with Dorothy and her friends aboard the Fairweather, and I’m so glad this is the start of a series.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
This really appeals to the cosy mystery fan in me. It sounds like a unique and fun twist on a genre I already enjoy, and I like the idea of a space Marple type character. Glad you enjoyed this
I’m loving anything cozy more and more these days:-)
I like the idea of a cozy mystery in space and this does sound really good! It’s tough to pack in all the important elements of a story in just over 100 pages, so that is doubly encouraging
I was impressed with how complete the story felt, and I can’t wait to see what the next adventure will be:-)
I love that the ship has the nickname Ferry. Somehow it just sounds cute, I don’t know why. This story does have a unique premise, I must say. I also love how it’s a science fiction book but also has some cozy mystery and detective genre in it.
She did a great job of combining SF and mystery:-)
I’m really curious about this one and didn’t realise that it was the start of the series. The setting sounds fantastic and I love the sound of the cocktails that you’ve described. Overall it’s giving me cosy sci fi mystery vibes and I’m excited for it.
I want to try one of the cocktails!
This sounds terrific! I’ve also never read anything by this author, although I see her name came up a lot. Given how short it is, I feel very inclined toward checking it out!
I thought it was the perfect first book to read by Waite. Probably because it was so short, and she did such a good job with the length.
Glad you liked this—it sounds like fun. Even though I’m not so much into mysteries, the sci-fi element & the fact that it’s a novella make it more appealing to me. I also like the concept of a book of your memories!
The library idea was really fun, and I feel like she can do a lot with it in future books.
I loved this too. My review is coming closer to the release date. Great to hear your thoughts.
I look forward to your review!
I recently read this one too, and I agree, the world-building was really neat. What a fascinating concept! I’m so glad to see you enjoyed this one!
I’m glad you enjoyed it too! I’m curious to see where the series goes next:-)
Awesome. Interesting that something as time spanning as a generation ship would have such a short page count.
And I wondered at the book cover until after reading your review, then it made much more sense. The idea of having their consciousness sort of stored in a library and put into new bodies reminds me a lot of Linda Nagata’s Inverted Frontier series, though they go about it somewhat differently. This is certainly a story and author I’d try.
Ha ha good point! I really enjoyed her writing so I’ll be looking for the next book in the series:-)
I love the sound of this – what an intriguing mystery – and I’m all about the mysteries at the moment.
Lynn
Me too, I like mysteries in any genre.
“Memory artists are people trained to mix these cocktails which, when consumed, give the person drinking it whatever memory they are craving”
This is really neat!
I rarely feel satisfied after reading a novella, but this one seems to have all the marks of a work well done! Also, I love Miss Marple :).
The memory cocktail was so cool! I don’t always feel satisfied with novellas, but knowing this is a series makes it better.
I’m definitely looking forward to reading more in this world, too. Though I agree, more Miss Marple than the comparison I saw (Dorothy L. Sayers).
I saw the Miss Marple comparison somewhere else and it worked for me:-)
I saw the Miss Marple comparison somewhere else and it worked for me:-)
The concept is fascinating but also frightening!
I don’t think I would want to be in this situation!
I was so curious to read your thoughts on this one, and I am really glad you enjoyed it!! Now I want to read it even more!!
I’m glad this will be a series also, this first book was barely enough!
Love the cover of this, and it sounds like an interesting story. Thanks for sharing!
https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2025/03/05/book-blitz-review-with-giveaway-one-night-hand-stand-by-julia-kent/