7.11.2023
Chris Mckinney's acclaimed sci-fi noir series continues in book 2 of the Water City trilogy, Eventide, Water City.
Hawai'i author Chris McKinney’s sweeping, cinematic follow-up to Midnight, Water City explores technology, class, climate change,
and the lengths desperate people will go to
in order to protect the ones they love.
RETURN TO WATER CITY
Available now from booksellers everywhere, including:
Year 2150: Eight years after the murder of Akira Kimura, Water City’s renowned scientist and anointed “God,” the nameless antihero who once risked everything to find Akira’s killer is no longer a detective, but a stay-at-home dad. While his wife climbs the corporate ladder of the Water City Police Department, he raises his now nine-year-old daughter and occasionally takes the odd job as a bounty hunter.
Water City’s domestic bliss is threatened when Ascalon’s Scar—the permanent mark left by the elimination of Sessho-seki, an asteroid that nearly wiped out life on Earth—vanishes from the sky and a familiar face thought dead returns from the ocean depths to exact revenge on humanity. What follows is a wild journey, both deep below and high above a futuristic Pacific, that takes Water City’s antihero from Lucky Cat City (formerly Osaka, Japan) to the moon and back, all to stop the destruction of the last of the human race.
Eventide, Water City • Chris McKinney • ISBN: 9781641294317 • On sale July 11, 2023 • Hardcover • Soho Crime
NOW IN PAPERBACK
Discover the book 1 in Chris McKinney's brilliant new sci-fi noir trilogy.
In a future of underwater cities, artificially extended lifespans, and a wealth gap that has outlived a near-apocalypse, a world-weary detective investigates the grisly murder of the enigmatic scientist who once saved the world.
Available now from booksellers everywhere, including:
Year 2142: Earth is forty years past a near-collision with the asteroid Sessho-seki. Akira Kimura, the scientist responsible for eliminating the threat, has reached heights of celebrity approaching deification. But now, Akira feels her safety is under threat, so after years without contact, she reaches out to her former head of security, who has since become a police detective.
When he arrives at her deep-sea home and finds Akira methodically dismembered, this detective will risk everything—his career, his family, even his own life—and delve back into his shared past with Akira to find her killer. With a rich, cinematic voice and burning cynicism, Midnight, Water City is both a thrilling neo-noir procedural and a stunning exploration of research, class, climate change, the cult of personality, and the dark sacrifices we are willing to make in the name of progress.
Midnight, Water City • Chris McKinney • ISBN: 9781641293686 • On sale now • Trade paperback • Soho Crime
Author Chris McKinney talks to readers about the origins and inspirations for the boldly imagined world of Midnight, Water City.
“A weird, smart blast of sci-fi noir, this narrative places readers in constantly shifting terrain. Politically engaged, environmentally conscious, and packed with action, this novel shows an all-too-plausible future.”
—Gabino Iglesias, author of Coyote Songs
“This distinctive novel brims with delightful innovations, razor-sharp social commentary and richly wrought characters, all set against a teeming underwater city.”
—Newsweek
“The whodunit angle may be familiar but Chris McKinney makes it work with his world-building chops and the creation of an authentic protagonist.”
—The Toronto Star
“This gritty noir set in a sci-fi landscape is a real page-turner.”
—Buzzfeed
“Many writers use crime fiction to reveal hidden elements of society or expose the abuses of those in power . . . And that sense of powerful people concealing crucial secrets from the general public is very much on display in Chris McKinney’s Midnight, Water City—a novel which makes the most of its slow-burning narrative of detection.”
—Tor.com
“Riveting . . . McKinney's mind-blowing concepts and conceits are so spooky and brilliant one suspects he's the spawn of Asimov and Tesla. A must-read for sci-fi lovers!”
—Kiana Davenport, author of Shark Dialogues
“Set in the 22nd century, this exceptional mystery-SF hybrid from McKinney, a trilogy kickoff, boasts impressive worldbuilding and a classic morally compromised lead thrust into a high-stakes homicide investigation . . . Comparisons to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner, are warranted.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
