Another novella that continues on from the previous two in building "The Universe of Xuya".

You can read this at Aliette's website.

This time we are taken into the heart of Xuya, and Xuyan society, where a young women has disappeared and her wealthy mother -- who doesn't want to get the Xuyan authorities involved -- employs an American detective to find her.

So what we end up with is a rather good detective story that also gives the reader their first glimpse into the heart of Xuya and the cultural tensions between Xuya, America, Greater Mexica and their peoples.

I'm really enjoying Aliette's style in how she is slowly building this alternative history of the world.   Not the usual, tedious, info dumps of some sci-fi writers, but each a delightful short story/novella each giving us a view of this history from a totally different perspective.

Once again, great writing, interesting characters, good pacing.   I'm also liking that this is not a series that you can just buy all the parts easily from Amazon, i'm very much liking that they're scattered all around the internet and have to be found one at a time, it's like a big puzzle.

I'll be back with more Xuya reviews soon. ( )