This Splintered Silence

Lindley Hamilton leads the space station Lusca. A deadly virus killed every first generation crew member aboard, her mother, the station's commander, among them, and the second generation, all of them teenagers, now run the place. Lindley always expected to captain the Lusca someday, but not this soon and not like this.

Each day is a struggle to stay alive. Lindley is learning how to keep the station running, how to reach Earth, and how to make sure the food does not run out. The station is small, and her world feels smaller still when one of the surviving teenagers dies with symptoms that match the virus.

More deaths follow. Lindley has to face two possibilities: the virus has mutated, or someone on board is a killer. Nobody can leave the station, so whoever it is stays in the same corridors as everyone else, and could be a friend. She and the five other teen leaders must find a way to trust one another while suspicion spreads and the number of dead grows.

This is a science fiction thriller built as a closed circle mystery and a whodunit. It is claustrophobic and tense, with grief and survival running underneath the search for the culprit. Readers who liked Illuminae and One of Us Is Lying will find similar territory here. The author also wrote The Sandcastle Empire.