Dead Space by Kali Wallace : Review

An investigator must solve a brutal murder on a claustrophobic space station in this tense science fiction thriller from the author of Salvation Day.

Hester Marley used to have a plan for her life. But when a catastrophic attack left her injured, indebted, and stranded far from home, she was forced to take a dead-end security job with a powerful mining company in the asteroid belt. Now she spends her days investigating petty crimes to help her employer maximize its profits. She’s surprised to hear from an old friend and fellow victim of the terrorist attack that ruined her life—and that surprise quickly turns to suspicion when he claims to have discovered something shocking about their shared history and the tragedy that neither of them can leave behind.

Before Hester can learn more, her friend is violently murdered at a remote asteroid mine. Hester joins the investigation to find the truth, both about her friend’s death and the information he believed he had uncovered. But catching a killer is only the beginning of Hester’s worries, and she soon realizes that everything she learns about her friend, his fellow miners, and the outpost they call home brings her closer to revealing secrets that very powerful and very dangerous people would rather keep hidden in the depths of space.

I have to say, I was pretty damn excited to receive my copy of this book a few weeks ago. Kali Wallace is one of those authors who seems to jump from genre to genre with every new book release and I absolutely love it — you never really know what you’re going to get with her! I’ve been in a bit of a reading rut for the last couple months, with nothing really sounding too good, so I’ve mostly been rereading my favorite books or series. Dead Space was just about everything I wanted from a new book and it was full of enough intense action and horror to keep me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading.

I didn’t really read much about Dead Space before I requested a copy to review for the blog here, I mainly just saw the author and knew I had to read it. So I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I was finally able to sit down and start reading it, but a kind of a mashup of horror story and a cop procedural story was not at all what I expected. I don’t want to go into too much detail on what made this book so amazing because I feel like that would really take away from the joy of reading it the first time yourself, so all I will say here is that the story is both surprising and amazing and no one who buys this book will regret it.

One of the main things I didn’t expect with this book was how many serious topics it would manage to address while still managing to be a fun read. It touches on Ableism, sexual orientation, suicide, murder, etc..the list goes on and on. Usually when I find a book that does that I often find it can sometimes bog the story down, but Kali Wallace did a fantastic job touching on some important and serious topics while still managing to tell a really tight and focused story. It honestly just reminded me once again why I love her books as much as I do.

All in all, I thought this was a great story that is well both the money and time it takes to read it. I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for something new to read and even if you don’t like this specific book, I would highly recommend anything else written by the author, she’s just great.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.