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Humanity's Commonwealth won its war with the alien Shrehari Empire seven decades ago. Starships engaged in commerce have replaced the battlecruisers, and much of that commerce flows through free ports established on what was once a disputed frontier. Yet even long after the armistice, the relationship between humans and an unfathomable, easily offended species remains tense. When someone assassinates a Shrehari trade emissary on Aquilonia Station, a human-owned free port, leaving a Commonwealth Navy officer as the sole suspect, everyone fears the worst.
An alien envoy killed by a member of the Armed Services is a case for the Commonwealth Constabulary, humanity's interstellar police force. And with galactic peace at stake, the investigation lands on the desk of Chief Superintendent Caelin Morrow.
As head of the Rim Sector's internal affairs division, Morrow is one of the most disliked cops in the Commonwealth. She investigates those in authority - members of the police, the military, and federal government officials. It's a tough job, but Morrow and her officers are also known as the last of the incorruptibles. It makes them ideal investigators to satisfy an angry Shrehari government.
However, soon after Morrow arrives on Aquilonia to dig for the truth, she realizes something more ominous than one of the seven deadly sins is behind the alien's murder. Was his death an act of passion, or an act of politics? And what will the result of her investigation mean for the future of humanity's relations with its restive alien neighbor?
About the author
Eric Thomson is the pen name of a retired Canadian soldier with thirty-one years of service, both in the Regular Army and the Army Reserve. He spent his Regular Army career in the Infantry and his Reserve service in the Armoured Corps. He worked for a number of years as an Information Technology specialist before retiring to become a full-time author. Eric has been a voracious reader of science-fiction, military fiction and history all his life. He assiduously devoured the recommended Army reading list in his younger days and still occasionally returns to the classics for inspiration. Several years ago, he put fingers to keyboard and started writing his own military sci-fi, with a definite space opera slant, using many of his own experiences as a soldier as an inspiration for his stories and characters. When he's not writing fiction, Eric indulges in his other passions: photography, hiking and scuba diving, all of which he's shared with his wife, who likes to call herself his #1 fan, for more than thirty years.
