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.
Extremity by Nicholas Binge Published by Tordotcom on October 14 2025
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 176
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A tense murder mystery/time travel story with a twist, Extremity is the perfect mash-up of noir vibes and futuristic elements.
Extremity was such a nice surprise! I went into it fairly blind, so I’ll keep this short to avoid spoilers. This is my first time reading Nicholas Binge, and it won’t be my last. This is a sci-fi novella with a heavy police procedural element, and Binge’s characters have a sort of gritty, noir vibe to them. The sci-fi element doesn’t kick in until about halfway through, so the first part of the story is purely a detective/murder mystery, which I really enjoyed.
Julia Torgrimsen was a brilliant detective, but she retired after a traumatic incident during her last case. One day, DCI John Grossman knocks on her door with some grim news. Billionaire tech giant Bruno Donaldson has been found dead, shot to death. Even stranger, a second body, identical to Bruno’s has also been found. John wants Julia to come out of retirement and help him on the case, and she reluctantly agrees.
As Julia begins her investigation, more bodies turn up, and it isn’t long before Julia realizes they’re all connected. When she finally tracks down the killer, Julia and her team are thrust into an impossible situation with deadly results.
Extremity is a time travel story, but I’m not going to give you any more details, since it’s fun to let the story unfold as you read it. I will say it relates to the title of the book, and it’s a concept I’ve never run across before. You’ll also find out why there are two Bruno Donaldsons! I love the way Binge combined a tense murder mystery with time travel, and adding lots of layered backstories to the characters made it so effective.
The characters were very well done, and as I mentioned, I loved their backstories, particularly Julia’s. Her past is another secret I’d love to preserve, because it’s the emotional center of the story. She has experienced quite a bit of heartbreak and trauma, which makes her return to work tension-filled to say the least. Joining Julia and John is rookie cop Mark Cochrane who is ultimately very important to the story. I thought the three of them bounced off each other nicely with lots of funny banter and wry humor.
The story is formatted as interviews with Julia, John and Mark, as they are being interrogated by the police after the events take place. I really liked this format, since we get to hear how each one interprets what happened in their own way, and their stories don’t always line up, adding to the overall mystery.
There is a pretty big twist at the end that I saw coming, but even though it wasn’t a complete surprise, the way the author revealed it was perfect. My only other complaint is the way the time travel was explained. It was all very simplistic with no real science backing it up. The novella length probably didn’t help, as the author had limited space to explain his time machine in detail, but I would have rated this a little higher had there been more details about how everything worked.
Still, I can’t deny how much fun I had reading Extremity. For a novella, Binge packed a lot into his story, and I’m excited to see what he writes next.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
This sounds interesting!! The noir vibes and the mix of thriller and sci-fi sounds really promising!!
It was fun, and I loved the characters:-)
This sounds very good, plus it has the advantage of being short, lol. An important element when you have 1,800 plus books on your TBR!
Tor published great books!
Not all novellas work, but this one did!
Great review! I don’t think I’d have been drawn to this book based just on the cover and title, but after reading this, I’m interested! The idea of time travel being a part of a murder case makes it sound pretty unique.
The cover actually fits the story perfectly!
Great review! I think I would love this.
I think you would too!
Sounds good! I’m waiting for the audiobook on Libby right now.
Oh cool, enjoy!
I’m not a huge fan of modern thrillers (more like a vintage mysteries one), but the fact that there’s time travel in this one and everybody seems to be impressed tempts me…
It was very well done, and I’m glad the author has a new book coming out next year:-)
This sounds like a fun one. I’ll have to remember it when I don’t have time to start a longer book. 😀
Yes, it’s perfect for a shorter read!
I love the sound of this one – to the extent that I’ve bought the audiobook version. Thank you for a great review, Tammy:).
I’ll look forward to hearing what you think about it! Enjoy:-)
Interview format is a take it or leave it for me, depending on the book. I am glad this was a winner for you!
This worked surprisingly well!
I could see myself enjoying this one. Love the idea of the police procedural but with sci-fi elements. And as a novella it’s not like I’d lose too much time even if it doesn’t work for me.
It’s a quick read and I’m glad I tried the author:-)
Thanks for the review, it looks like a quick and fun read which is what I expected. May put this one in my November TBR considerations.
This does sound really good although time travel in any story always gives me pause for thought
Lynn 😀
I’m not big into police procedurals, so this probably wouldn’t be for me. But it sounds like you enjoyed it! The cover makes me think of a tv show, so maybe it would be good for that? Great review!
https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2025/11/22/e-galley-review-secret-nights-and-northern-lights-by-megan-oliver/