The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and Collecting the Dead by Spencer Kope

I'm not sure whose blog I saw the Murderbot Diaries on, but I'm grateful!  (Just found where I read about these books--Bookfoolery)

From Description:
"On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth. (less)"

A novella that seems like so much more, All Systems Red creates believable characters, from Murderbot, a construct AI, to it's human clients.  Suspense and characterization combine to make this novella almost pitch perfect.  As soon as I finished, it was on to the next book!

It was easy to find MB an intriguing and admirable character.  A SecUnit who wants to discover itself and to find out what happened to make it name itself "Murderbot."  

From Description:

It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Given comparative freedom by the clients who purchased it, but still uncomfortable with humans, MB makes a decision to take off on his own to find out about the event that haunts it.  MB ends up on an empty Research Transport with an amazing amount of brain power.  ART allows MB on board, then confronts it (MB is genderless).  Initially, MB is resentful and uneasy, but binge-watching dramas like Sanctuary Moon keeps things cool.

So..now I love MB and ART.  They are a compelling duo!  Martha Wells is new to me, and I need to check out her other works.  First, I need the next novella in this series!

Science Fiction.  
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I read Shadows of the Dead in April and scheduled a review for Aug. 10th.  Shadows of the Dead is the third in the Special Tracking Unit series featuring Magnus "Steps" Craig, and I had not read the first two books. 

After abandoning a couple of books, I decided to go back and get the first book in the Special Tracking Unit series, Collecting the Dead.

From Description:  Magnus "Steps" Craig is part of the elite three-man Special Tracking Unit of the FBI. Called in on special cases where his skills are particularly needed, he works as a tracker. The media dubs him "The Human Bloodhound," since Steps is renowned for his incredible ability to find and follow trails over any surface better than anyone else. But there's a secret to his success. Steps has a special ability---a kind of synesthesia---where he can see the 'essence' of a person, something he calls 'shine,' on everything they've touched. 

Only a few people know about Steps' secret, and they mean to keep it that way.  Steps methods of obfuscating his ability and attributing it to clues others can understand...keeps him on his toes.  After all, he can't say, "I see the shine of both the killer and the victim."  Instead, he "sees  tracks" that make sense to regular people.  This technique makes Steps appear to be a highly skilled tracker who discovers evidence others miss.

Steps, however, is getting tired of finding dead bodies.  His partner Jimmy tries to keep him positive by talking about the lives Steps saves by finding killers.  Jimmy watches for the depression Steps suffers.  I like the way Steps, Jimmy, and Diane, who coordinates and researches everything, work together.  This first book in the series does some explaining and some background that occasionally slows the pace.

Eventually, I will get to book two in the series,  :)  

Police Procedural with a twist.  2016.  306 pages,