Will I love The Body Scout?

I don’t care about baseball at all, but I love stories with cybernetic implants, reluctant detectives, and corporate machinations and this book has all of those… plus cyborg baseball. I loved Kobo, the down-on-his-luck baseball scout barely scraping by on his implant maintenance fees, and the mystery he’s sucked into when his childhood best friend (and major league baseball star) dies in the middle of a game. This is the best kind of onion mystery, with layers upon layers of twists and turns, and it’s full of the brain-busting science fictional ideas I love—biological and technological augmentation and their consequences.

As independent genres, science fiction and noir are both interested in exploration, not only of plot mysteries or the rules of a new and different setting, but also of deeper truths about the human condition. The Body Scout has a futuristic NYC where body modification is the norm, and an affecting detective story, which both examine how we relate to our bodies. From labor to narcotics to aesthetics to sex and desire, the book explores how we view and treat our own bodies and others, and how our social structures exploit them.