In his latest release from Tor Books, author Adam Christopher offers us his answer to the question, “What if Raymond Chandler had written a science fiction novel?”.

The year is 1965, and Raymond Electromatic is the last of the robots, and a unique one at that. Raymond was brought into existence just as the United States Department of Robotic Labor scratched the program amid widespread distrust and dissatisfaction with robotics. The door to Ray’s office advertises: RAYMOND ELECTROMATIC, Licensed Private Detective, but for a long while now he has been in the assassination business, sent on assignment by Ada, the independent supercomputer who makes up the bulk of his office space.

So when an attractive woman walks into his office without an appointment, Raymond assumes she is there to engage him in his former occupation. Though his inclination is to send her on her way, a bag of untraceable gold bars arrests his attention. That attention is piqued when she not only asks him to find a missing man…but also to kill him.

I cannot claim to be fluent in the language of Raymond Chandler. Though I have read and enjoyed a handful of Chandler’s short stories, it will take a more ardent fan to assess whether or not Adam Christopher adequately channels the master. What I can attest is that Made to Kill is an engaging, page-turner of a book that has the feel of the kind of hard-boiled West Coast fiction that I associate with Chandler’s work.

Made to Kill is voiced by its protagonist, Raymond Electromatic, which is quite the feat given that Raymond’s memory tape only has a 24 hour capacity. Assisted by Ada and some basic “memories” retained within another part of his metal frame, Raymond starts each new day with little to no recollection of the day before. This plot device is one of several that make Ray’s story such an interesting read. As a reader we know more than the narrator himself, and yet not so much that we foresee the twists and turns that mimic the winding Hollywood Hills roads upon which Raymond travels.

In our post-modern era it is arguable that those familiar with the hard-boiled aesthetic have their knowledge because of parodies that present the genre in a way that is stylistically overblown. It might have been tempting for Christopher to take that road, but in choosing Chandler as an inspiration, he instead flexes his creative muscles in crafting wonderful descriptions that retain the flavor of this literary time period without detracting from the story. Made to Kill arrived in the mail on Friday, a surprise from the publicity department at Tor Books. I do not generally get to review books that quickly, but familiarity with Christopher’s work bolstered by Will Staehle‘s gorgeous retro cover art, compelled me to pick it up on a sunny Sunday afternoon and finish it before dropping off to sleep. During that afternoon and evening of immersion I never once felt like I was reading a modern author attempting a “take” on decades old fiction. The story was nicely grounded in a slightly anachronistic, though recognizable, 60’s era Hollywood.

In creating the world we see through Raymond Electromatic’s photo receptors, Adam Christopher utilizes Ray’s memory shortcomings, some “ghost in the system” style recollections, and fascinating imagery quirks from both Raymond and Ada to draw the reader into the hard-boiled era. I won’t say more about Ada and Raymond’s “personalities”…suffice it to say they are what made the novel so satisfying to read and I commend Adam Christopher for his creativity. I was also impressed with the way Christopher subdued any urges to give Raymond an overabundance of humanity. A robot who can kill without remorse, or without any overt remorse, gives the story a sense of detachment that in hard-boiled fiction is often the result of a cast of washed out, broken characters in an unforgiving setting. Adam Christopher certainly plays with Raymond’s “humanity”, but this first novel is not an attempt to look at mankind through the eyes of an artificial being wishing to be made real. Instead it is a love-letter to the kind of fiction that Chandler and others made famous.

Although Made to Kill is a nicely self-contained story, I am pleased with the idea that we will be seeing more of Raymond’s cases in the future. Adam Christopher is an author who has dipped his toe into a number of different genres, and has done so successfully because he can tell a good story. I enjoyed traveling back into the Cold War era with Raymond Electromatic and his ‘office gal’ Ada.

I think you will too.