This grew on me, the opening seems a little slow and it's not obvious what is happening, but as the story develops it all works quite well, until you're almost expecting a trilogy to resolve all the strands before a slightly rushed ending wraps it all up. There is certainly room for more in this universe, but it is complete as it stands.

Victor Stromboli is our hero, he's spent all his life on the mobile Transient City, he ekes out a living as a Witness for the police possessed of an eidetic memory, he can recall all the details of a crime scene. This is one of the few continuity errors within the plot, as there appears to be no-one else on the planet who can perform the same roll, and it's unclear how any of the other cases manage. However he's seen very much as an aide and only paid appearance fees, so he subsists on the fringe of the city living in a tarp maze along with various other semi-respectables, including just about his only friend a young skateboard messenger. Transient City is a strange place, it's mobile mining platform on a colony world fully owned by a gigantic corporation (presumably one of many but all the cities seem to be owned by the same corp). And as such the politics of the city's triumvirate is to make a name and as much profit for the corp as they can whilst minimising expenditure. This brings the steampunk make do and mend feel to the world as the corporation doesn't spend anything on technoligcal improvements, what can be achieved by hand is done so.

TBC

The only major gripe is the jarring transition to other points of view without any formatting breaks or chapter headings. I'm never a fan of revealing the antagonists motivations by cutting away to them telling a henchman crucial details, especially so when they aren't established as a character. Although the opening scene just about works to set the tension for later developments none of the subsequent cutaways served any useful purpose. I'm not sure if the lack of clear demarcation is a publisher/editor fault or the author's deplorable deliberate choice. ( )