Meet Your Maker

In Mather’s strong sequel to 2019’s The Dreaming Tree, Det. Delta Devlin, a millennial with the Suffolk County PD on Long Island, decides to accept a six-month, résumé-building assignment at Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France. Soon after her arrival, Delta’s father, an NYPD captain, is critically shot in a botched assassination attempt on the Ukrainian president at the United Nations. The weapon was a handgun made by a 3D printer. Delta tracks a suspect to Kiev, where the 3D printing industry, completely unregulated, thrives in large warehouses that have been converted into printing farms turning out various consumer products, as well as cutting-edge weaponry. As the action alternates between Ukraine and New York, Delta—a savant type who can read micro-expressions—winds up dealing with a lot more than trying to find out who shot her dad. Despite the far-fetched plotting, Mather’s brand of speculative fiction is solidly rooted in technology’s near-term potential, rather than more fanciful, distant social and economic threats. He forces readers to contemplate a world, unnerving yet conceivable, that could soon be their own. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (July)