Book Review: Kris Longknife: Audacious by Mike Shepherd

Kris Longknife: Audacious
Author: Mike Shepherd
Series: Kris Longknife (Book 6)
Publication: Ace (October 30, 2007)

Description: You can't keep a good woman down - Kris Longknife returns.

Once again Kris finds herself caught in the crosshairs of unknown enemies who want her dead. Factions, both legitimate and underground, vie for control of the planet New Eden. And someone is taking advantage of the chaos to unleash a personal vendetta against Kris.

My Thoughts: Kris Longknife has made the Rim too hot for her, so her king and Navy boss send her to New Eden as part of a procurement team. The only problem is that Kris knows there is more to her mission than her superiors told her about.

New Eden is an interesting world. It was one of the first settled when people from Earth began to leave the planet. Kris finds a society that is big on secrets and information security. She also finds a stratified society with the rich, original settlers who have the right to vote and all the others whose ancestors might have come to the planet as indentured servants and whose descendants are still disenfranchised. 

The government has a lock on the news. Only good news gets reported in the powerful press. Neither of the two assassination attempts on Kris manage to make the news. Gun control is supposed to be absolute with only hired security services allowed to carry. But the security firms don't advertise and need word of mouth recommendations. Getting a permit to carry for herself, her team and even the Marines at the Embassy is not an easy task.

We also learn that New Eden is Abby's home planet - the one she was very glad to leave fifteen years earlier. As she goes looking for her mother and sister, she discovers that she has a twelve-year-old niece and that her mother and sister are aiming to get themselves out of the slums where they live by latching onto powerful men.

Kris also gets a chance to meet Vicky Peterwald, the little-known sister of Hank Peterwald who met his fate in the last book. Vicky has a major grudge against Kris and is the author of the assassination attempts. She's supposed to be on the planet to learn from Peterwald agents who are attempting to overthrow the current government in order to take over New Eden. Her actions bring that plot to overthrow the government to Kris's attention and she finally knows why King Ray sent her to New Eden.

However, she doesn't know if she is supposed to stop the revolution or begin it until she finds out the Peterwalds are on the other side. Whatever they want, Kris knows her home planet wants the opposite.

This was another great episode in the Kris Longknife series.

Favorite Quote:

"King Ray sent me here for a reason. That reason has nothing to do with paper clips. But as is Ray Longknife's bad habit, he didn't tell me what the real reason was, did he, Panny?"

"He never does," the intel officer said.

"He never does," Kris reinforced for the slow thinkers at the table. "He has a Longknife-size problem so he sends a Longknife out to solve it, but old Ray never does bother to let me know anything."

"One revolution, one Longknife." Gramma Ruth said dryly. "Even odds."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.