The Doomsday Brunette

John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

In the deco-inspired, pop-culture-obsessed future, Zachary Nixon Johnson has made a name for himself as the last private eye on Earth. Now the wise-cracking PI and his supercomputer sidekick, HARV, are hired by Ona Thompson, one of four genetically-engineered super women known collectively as the Thompson Quads. Ona’s sister has been murdered, and she needs Zach to locate the killer.

The list of suspects is long - including a butler, security experts, a giant monkey, and even Ona herself. And the list of motives is even longer. Vengeance, envy, wealth, and fun could all be at play. It isn’t long before Zach’s fedora is filled to the brim with danger and destruction in this thrilling follow-up to The Plutonium Blonde.

'A wild and crazy adventure that blends noir detective fiction and far-out future SF to create a tongue-in-cheek, thoroughly enjoyable story.'

Review by Paul Lappen (030625) Rating (9/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 9/10
Set in the middle of the 21st century, the Thompson Quads (short for quadruplets) are genetically engineered to be stronger, smarter, more beautiful and alluring, more everything than the average person. Ona, Twoa, Threa and Foraa (seriously) are supposed to be the pinnacle of humanity, but their personalities never caught up with their bodies. During a private dinner at Ona's private compound, attempting to patch up disagreements between them (which have grown to the size of the Grand Canyon), Foraa falls to the floor, dead, and apparently poisoned.

Enter Zachary Nixon Johnson, the world's last freelance private investigator. The wine Foraa was drinking when she collapsed tests negative for all known poisons. An autopsy on Foraa is impossible because her skin, like that of her sisters, is impregnable to outside objects, including scalpels, saws, and even lasers used on asteroids. Johnson, who is assisted in his investigation by HARV, the world's most sophisticated supercomputer hardwired into his brain, doesn't lack for suspects.

Spoiler Alert

Perhaps the killer was aiming for Ona (she inherited all of Daddy's money when he died, and has become an arrogant, overbearing you-know-what) and miscalculated. After much investigation, and narrowly surviving an attack by a cybernetic suit of armour, Johnson feels the case is solved. During what is supposed to be the climactic scene, where the hardboiled PI calls together all the suspects in order to reveal the murderer, Johnson gets a call from the morgue. Foraa has woken up, gotten off the autopsy table and left. The final battle of the book takes place in a New Vegas casino that happens to be built on top of a real doomsday device, built by Daddy before he died.

Fans of hardboiled detective novels will enjoy this story; science fiction fans will also enjoy it. The authors do a fine job throughout and this is well worth reading.
Paul Lappen (3rd June 2025)