Murder by Other Means

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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A SEQUEL TO THE DISPATCHER?
I think the last thing on my mind as I finished The Dispatcher was that there'd be a sequel. It seemed fairly stand-alone (but, I guess, I can see that the door was open). But now that I've heard this? It seems only natural that there'd be a follow-up to The Dispatcher and the door is open for more.

WHAT'S MURDER BY OTHER MEANS ABOUT?
So, in this world 99.9% of the time, if you're murdered, you come back to life in your home/somewhere you feel safe. If you die of natural causes, in an accident, from suicide—you stay dead. But if someone intends you harm and you die, you're most likely safe. This started a few years before this book is set, and no one knows why.

But that doesn't stop people from taking advantage of it. There's a new industry, our protagonist/narrator is part of it, Dispatching. Licensed killers who shoot people when death is all but certain to give them another chance at life. In the time since The Dispatcher, it seems that some new and creative uses for them have become common. Most of them straddle the line between legal/illegal or moral/immoral.

Tony Valdez starts this book hurting for money, and takes one of those not technically illegal jobs. Soon after, people around him—loosely connected, but not really friends or colleagues—start dying from unnatural causes. Not murders, obviously, because they stay dead. But as the bodies start to accumulate, the police have to look at the one common denominator—Tony. Tony starts investigating himself—if only because he figures it's going to be long before he's one of the dead that doesn't come back.

HOW WAS THE NARRATION?
Quinto makes Tony come to life, and is able to humanize this licensed executioner enough that you don't think of him as a killer for hire, you think of him a beleaguered private contractor on hard times. Quinto's great at the rest of the job, too—I'd absolutely listen to more audiobooks he narrates.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MURDER BY OTHER MEANS?
I was less than enthusiastic about The Dispatcher back in 2016—which I didn't remember until I just glanced at my post. I'm not over the moon about this, but I enjoyed it, and hope there's more to come (I'm not sure I want to wait four more years, however). If there is? I'm jumping on it eagerly.

It was clever, it is honest about the human condition and the ways we find to hurt and destroy (and comes up with a few that are custom-made for this no-murder reality), yet remains a very human, very real thriller. It's a good way to spend a couple of hours.

This was focused less on the dispatcher aspect of series and more on the mystery element. That's not to say that the former was chucked out the window, it just didn't form the central element of the plot like in the first book. I'm fine with this because the plot was good enough to carry its own weight.

Executive Summary: I thought this was mostly fun, albeit a bit slow at times. 3.5 Stars.

Audiobook: I think Zachary Quinto does a fine job. Nothing particularly special, but he generally reads at a good speed and with good inflection.

Full Review
This series doesn't seem to have the typical Scalzi snark, which I kind of miss. I do find the world building interesting. I kind of groaned when the title of the book was explained, but that's about it.

I'm generally not a fan of novellas and I might not have picked this one up if it wasn't included as part of my Audible membership. Mostly I went with this book because I was looking to fill space between my last book and the release of my next one. This served that well.

I thought despite it's short length the pacing was a little slow early on. Once it got going I thought it was pretty enjoyable.

Overall I liked it, and will consider checking the next one out. Hopefully Audible continues to include them in their free selection since I don't see myself spending a lot of money (or a credit) on something so short.

So, full disclosure, I am not audiobook people. I am a massive Scalzi fan and I'm pretty fond of Zachary Quinto, so I thought it was worth a try. It's not enough. There are just too many names and too many subplots for me to keep track of just by listening. I'm not sure why audiobooks don't go the direction of podcasts, or even radio plays, and try for more auditory interest? Even Quinto, an expert voice actor, comes off as monotone and some of the voices he uses for different characters are jarring or absurd.

The bones, I think, are decent: Scalzi explores what options the criminal element has to operate with in a world in which murder doesn't work. He brings back his Dispatcher protagonist, his cop sidekick Langdon and the morally grey crime boss from the Dispatcher and that continuity and further story development was nice. Hopefully I'll get a chance to read this at some point when it stops being an audible exclusive.

Murder by Other Means is an excellent follow up to Scalzi's The Dispatcher. Tony once again finds himself collaborating with CPD, but the situation becomes very messy very fast. Again, this series is not characterized by the same kind of humor as Old Man's War or Redshirts, but is nevertheless an excellent sci-fi thriller. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️