This was one hellacious story and Tchaikovsky is one helluva storyteller.

The worldbuilding was beyond amazing. The plot was intelligent and the main character was so well-developed, it was extremely enjoyable.

Skotch is a raccoon who lives in a world that humans have created to be ecofriendly, recyclable, and with zero carbon footprint. For the humans to make this utopian environment, they designed a city - a Green City - to be utterly labor-free for humans. All maintenance from fixing a dishwasher to cleaning the sidewalks to maintaining the power grid is all done by enhanced animals, the Gehirner.  Certain species or strains were bred for their inherent characteristics then their brains were enhanced (read: uplifted) so that they could understand complex tasks and be capable of speech.  Raccoons, for example, are the city's trash collectors; but Skotch was always a bit different.  For a while he was happy doing his job and his part in maintaining the city.  But then some errant bit of gene manipulation caused him to want to be more independent.  So he became a freelancer, a private investigator; taking any job someone will throw his way.

All the Gehirner get a basic amount of food in the form of nutritious food bars and a steady supply of a supplement that keeps their brains performing at this higher level so long as they work for one of the corporations.  But the animals have been enterprising and creative.  Many of their kind have found ways to pilfer from the humans and resell so there's a burgeoning little economy growing.  But without a corporation employer, Skotch has to rely on payment from odd jobs to buy food and plangent, the necessary supplement.  Without it, an animal will gradually lose higher brain function and revert to a primitive form; something that every single one of them dreads.

But the author wasn't satisfied with just creating a capitalist market and an engaging hero, he had to throw in the proverbial human kitchen sink.  There are squirrel armies throwing down against each other, West Side Story style.  There are the crazy parrots who deliberately deprive themselves of plangent to experience an altered state of mind.  The rats have created a mob.  The amphibians who control the clean water have their own little world down there that no other animal dares to enter.

And…on top of all this is Rule 1.  Rule 1 says that no human in the city should ever have an encounter with a Gehirner.  Very occasionally, a human might see the night crew cleaning the hallway but the two species would never interact.  The Gehirner use tunnels and hide in foliage to move about the city, unseen. Humans know perfectly well how their city is maintained but they pay no more mind than they would to a vacuum cleaner.  There is one sterling exception:  Saint Frances.  She is a human nun who has decided her calling is to dispense care to the Gehirner.  She is a last resort for many who have no other option.  She dispenses meds, such as she is able to find and correctly prescribe.  She also has a phone to call out on.

Skotch is such an independent-minded creature that he can count on one paw the number of animals he considers friends.  For him, it's all about the job.  He is also thoroughly indoctrinated in the idea that caring for the city is what all animals must do.  He just doesn't want to follow someone else's idea of what that entails.

So, one day he gets offered a job; a very peculiar job.  He's to find a mouse.  Mice are pretty much at the bottom of the hierarchy.  They are used in the farms where all the food for the humans is produced.  Due to their prolific birthrates, they are easily used to care for food crops as there are always more of them; and the job doesn't necessarily need a very high brain function.  So the idea that a single country mouse who ran away to the big city would be valuable enough to pay Skotch to find him is just ludicrous.  He isn't told why they want the mouse, but they offer him a king's ransom if he can and bring it in.  Skotch doesn't really care, it sounds like an easy gig.  The thing is…just about everyone has an interest in this particular mouse including a lethal weasel who wants to kill it, a killer-for-hire pet cat who may want to kill it or just play with it, the mob wants it (for reasons Skotch can't imagine), the leader of the amphibians wants to protect it, and many more on both sides of the question.  Should the mouse live or die?  And everyone but Skotch seems to know the why of it. 

A side note about pets.  Humans still have pets and many of them like having a Gehirner as a pet.  These particular animals are strictly off-limits to any mayhem or murder as it would bring unwanted attention from the humans.  So the pet cat is a problem; no one can kill it while it waltzes around killing as it pleases.  Skotch has one persistent problem, not sure if it's a friend or not; a pet pigeon who sticks her beak into everyone's business.  Her job is to collect stories and take them back to her human employer who used them to write fiction.  She turns out to be so much more than just a pain in Skotch's butt.  I just loved her.

So back to the mouse:  apparently he's an aberration, a genius mouse.  Although just what he's cooked up in his Frankenstein lab scares Skotch.  And it would explain why some animals want to save it and some want to kill it.  Skotch is starting to imagine some truly heinous lab work that might actually kill humans.  His dilemma is trying to figure out who to sell the mouse to (should he actually find it) and whether it needs to be dead or alive.

It may sound like I've provided spoilers and a couple are but there is ever so much more to this story that they won't spoil it for you.  The intricacies of the Gehirner society, their dependence on the humans, and the things that poor Skotch goes through to find this mouse fills this book.  And the author is so clever about giving us clues to small mysteries that I am very impressed.  There were at least two that I never saw coming.

Aside from the fantastic worldbuilding, the plot is worthy and complex without becoming a mess.  The characters are amazing; while Skotch is primary, of course, we see enough of the others to be very invested.  And the pace is crazy; I found myself reading faster and faster because I had to.  It has a very noir-private-eye feel to it; especially as we hear Skotch's thoughts.  I loved that.  The other animals, even those who only got a paragraph or two, were much more than walk-ons.  Everything and everyone was integral to the story.

This is my second Tchaikovsky story and I've loved them both.  They were very different stories but both had a similar foundation.  I have two more of his coming up in the next couple months and I can hardly wait.  He has a pretty extensive backlist and I wish I had time to explore it; he's one of my most favorite 'new' authors.  ~~  Catherine Book

For more titles by Adrian Tchaikovsky click here