Kop by Warren Hammond was recommended to me as a science fiction detective story and I’m a sucker for a good science fiction detective story. It is a detective story in a science fiction setting, but the science is minimized and completely irrelevant to the story. It tries to be a noir, but ultimately fails at that level. The science fiction setting is just that, a setting. There is little to tell that we are on a different world with future technology. As a detective novel it’s a decent story with an ending that is designed to lead into a sequel more than provide closure.

Our main character, Juno, is a dirty cop on a backwards world named Lagarto. Lagarto was once a thriving mecca due to being the sole manufacturer of a popular liquor. But when the base plant was stolen and spread among other worlds, Lagarto turned into a backwater slum with no notice given to the people in transit to help with the liquor distribution. Now there are two powers in the world, the police and the mob.

Juno is a bagman now, but he used to be the muscle for the chief of police (and helped put him in that position). The chief calls Juno in to run a homicide case and tutor a rookie (from a wealthy and powerful family). Juno knows he can’t refuse and starts back down the path that he’d been running from. As the case gets deeper and deeper, Juno finds himself with less help and more enemies than he had ever suspected.

Hammond is trying to write Dashell Hammett, but he never quite captures the noir atmosphere. The writing is decent and the plot is sufficiently complicated with twists and turns popping up every other chapter. There are several chapters set 15 years in the past which are supposed to give us background information about why things are setup the way they are now, but they just slow the story down and don’t add that much information. Kop is a quick read and a decent mystery, but it never lives up to what it attempts to be.