Review: The Last Iota, by Rob Kroese

A Raymond Chandler conspiracy with world-shaping consequences

Rob Kroese’s The Big Sheep was a twisty tale of murder, gangsters, clones, and free will.

In the sequel, The Last Iota, is a tale of murder, warfare, conspiracies, world-wrecking affairs, and economics.

The Story

It has been a matter of weeks since Erasmus Keane and his partner Blake Fowler tangled with movie mogul Selah Fiore, a powerful force in Los Angeles society, and key figure controlling LA’s city-within-a-city, the Disincorporated Zone. But now, Selah Fiore has reappeared again, but as a client. The treatments to extend her life have ironically given her leukemia. To cement Selah’s legacy, she wants to hire the duo to find a rare lost Iota coin—a coin with seemingly no value.

When the client turns up murdered, and Keane and Fowler framed for the crime, it’s clear that this worthless coin is worth their lives.

As they work the case, the threats grow beyond their own personal freedom and safety. The “useless” Iota threatens the gangs and civilians of the Disincorporated Zone, LA, and the entire planet. Soon, Keane and Fowler realize they’re up against the city, state, federal authorities, a corrupt billionaire, and a capricious genius behind it all who would like to see the world burn—If Keane and Fowler don’t succeed, it just might.

The Last Iota is hard to pin down because it does so much. Raymond Chandler would have loved it because of the complexity of the plot, but how it play perfectly fair. Mickey Spillane would have loved it because it’s filled with action. And the solution is dark and cynical and brilliant.

Have you ever read a person who can make economics a key plot point in a murder mystery? The closest I’ve ever seen was perhaps Neil Stephenson’s Reamde, or Terry Pratchett’s Making Money, and Pratchett didn’t address the depths of economics that The Last Iota uses it its plot.

The Last Iota takes economics and philosophy and make it a tense science-fiction thriller.

Characters

Keane is brilliant, enigmatic, and makes Sherlock Holmes look like an open book. He uses logic puzzles a spycraft. He almost always knows more than he’s telling.

Fowler is more of a basic noir lead character; he trusts few people, and trusts Keane maybe half the time. He’s less of a Watson and more of an Archie Goodwin … if Archie had military training.

The World

Like any good noir story, the world, the city itself, is a character. This is also especially true in a well-written sci-fi story. Here, it’s both.

There are even well-sketched details that don’t even add to the story, they’re just fun. There are hologram projections, android stand-ins for actors. There are shadowy government agencies that predict disasters and have a layout for what happens next (specifically, in Los Angeles. Funny that.) It’s a rich and detailed world, with a history twenty years from now, and almost nothing is wasted.

And everything ties together. In some cases, more neatly than Chandler’s work did.

Politics

Unless you think basic economics is political, none.

Content Warning

None, really. There’s murder. There are some shootouts. Nothing graphic really stood out, however.

Who is it for?

If you like noir mysteries, action and complex plots, you should try it. For those people who want to read noir science fiction, like if Neil Stephenson was trying to write Chandler or Spillane.

Why Buy it?

This is a fast-paced, tightly-written mystery-thriller in a science fiction setting that is unique enough that you should give it a whirl.