Lesley L. Smith http://www.lesleylsmith.com is the author of a dozen novels. A Jack in the Dark was published in 2018 and is the second book in her Space Operetta series. It is the 65th book I completed reading in 2023.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to mature situations, I categorize this novel as R. This novel begins shortly after the conclusion of A Jack by Any Other Name. Someone has set off a bomb aboard the Shakespeare. There has been some damage and one fatality. Jack tries his best to discover the culprit. Along the way, he uncovers the secret source of the FTL drives that are widely in use. This leads to his unmasking a plot to take over the galaxy.

I spent 6.5 hours reading this 336-page science fiction novel. I had already read the first novel in this series A Jack by Any Other Name. I should have known to stop there. This tongue-in-cheek style of writing is well outside my usual reading range. I give this novel a rating of 3.4 (rounded to 3) out of 5.

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