When she arrives home from school on Callisto, Talia Shindo finds two strange men in her house. They terrorize her, and kidnap her mother. The men leave Talia behind. She's thirteen, brilliant, and determined to find her missing mother.Retrieval Artist Miles Flint works a seemingly unrelated case, digging into files left him by his mentor. Only he finds a connection to the Shindo kidnapping, a connection that shatters everything he ever knew.The two cases collide, changing Flint, changing Talia, and changing the universe around them-forever.RT Book Reviews Reviewers Award Choice Nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year."Rusch continues her provocative interplanetary detective series with healthy doses of planet-hopping intrigue, heady legal dilemmas and well-drawn characters."-Publishers Weekly"This high-tech detective story, part of the Retrieval Artist series, has hard science fiction, a complex whodunit and a fascinating look at alien bureaucracy. All the elements for an entertaining story are here: well-drawn, believable characters with frailties and flaws, credible scientific theory, and authentic-feeling settings."-RT Book Reviews