This was a fun setting for a mystery, and I really enjoyed the writing. The narrator is a detective whose consciousness has been on a space ship for 300 years. The technology that allows for a thousand-year voyage in which residents store their memories in books and get new bodies when the old ones die is never fully explained, but the mystery that revolves around this technology is well thought-out and entertaining. I liked the idea, for example, that if you give a murder victim a couple of days for their memories to be restored to a new body, they could help you figure out who killed them.

I loved Dorothy's voice and her relationship with her nephew Ruthie. The ship's reaction to the magnetic storm was very funny. If this is the start of a series, I'm definitely up for more.

This was a great queer cozy sci fi mystery novella! It's engaging, fast-paced, and a lot of fun! Dorothy Gentleman is a detective on board a generation ship who finds herself in the wrong body. Another passenger is dead and someone has erased Dorothy's memory book! It's up to Dorothy to solve the case before anyone else dies.

This book packs a PUNCH at just at 100 pages. Like... this is seriously a master class in storytelling. I was introduced to new sci-fi technology but I wasn't confused. The world of the ship and societal norms were so clear. It felt like I was reading a cozy mystery (like a queer Murder She Wrote) on a spaceship (think Wall-E). The vibes were just sooo good.

There's no reason for you *not* to read it. I mean... it'll only take you an hour or so. Just pick it up. I'm sure you won't be sorry!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with copies of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.
Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.
Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she’s letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they’ve had three hundred years to perfect their schemes…

This novella has an interesting premise, a sci-fi mystery on a spaceship where people don't actually die unless they are murdered. Work in a detective that is easily distracted by knitting and you'll have many who want to read more about Dorothy and her adventures in space.
Listed as the first in a new series, this was very enjoyable and I'll be waiting to read the next one.

I would read a dozens, hundreds of books set in this world. Epic sci-fi worldbuilding meets cozy mystery with glimmers of Sapphic romance....absolutely delightful.

I enjoyed this but it felt like the beginning of a story rather than a complete story. I'd love seeing where the universe and characters go next but this was more of a taster than a fully fleshed out story imo.

Olivia Waite's Murder by Memory is your next cozy read. Whether you love Becky Chambers or are looking for a cozy murder mystery, this novel has the best of both worlds. A brooding yet loveable detective. Quicky queer side characters, including a hungover AI. A spaceship traveling to a distant planet. Grab your cozy knitted blanket and a warm cup of tea, and enjoy!

Minority Report but make it a book, and better! I highly enjoyed this novella - excellent storytelling, easy to digest, and very fun!!

Oh, I LOVED this and need a whole series stat. I want to learn so much more about the HMS Fairweather, and all 10000 humans who have had 300 years together, starting over and over in new bodies. I neeeeeeeed more.

This should have been a full fledged book, I'd have happily spent time on that. This felt like a quick rushed writing sprint than anything else.

I received an advance copy of this novella via NetGalley.

Murder by Memory is a staunchly science fiction mystery; by that, I mean this is definitely for SF readers, as it has a twisty-turny plot that might lose trad mystery readers.

The HMS Fairweather is ship on a thousand-year journey to a new world. People’s essences are stored in a Library, and when their bodies wear out, they can be restored… usually. So when ship detective Dorothy Gentleman awakens in someone else’s body, she knows something went very wrong.

The mystery is fascinating and fast to read, the technology unique and fascinating. The end delivers twists I never would have seen coming. That said, I was left wondering about a significant aspect of humanity: faith, either in familiar Earth forms or in something new aligning with a shifted view on souls and eternity.

My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this novella that is a mix of science fiction and mystery, with a bit of family drama.

For the longest time when I started reading books I was strictly a genre person. Mystery, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, horror, the only regular fiction I read was what was assigned in school. Unless there was swords, lasers, detectives, knights or spies, I was uninterested. Gradually my taste changed, but it took a long while. My biggest joy was finding books that mixed my taste in stories. Science fiction with a bit of mystery, or mystery with a bit of science fiction. Two great tastes that go great together was my feeling. I guess I was not alone in liking this treat. Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite mixes a bit of classic mystery, family strife, love gone wrong, knitting, and a lot of future science.

Dorothy Gentlemen is used to being awoken to help solve a crime, but being awoken in a different body, younger than the one she remembered was a surprise. Also the fact that her computer Dorothy was used to talking to sounded almost drunk, and confused. Dorothy is a shipboard detective on the HMS Fairweather, the most splendid interstellar liner in the galaxy. The Fairweather has been in space for 307 years, and Dorothy has been very good at solving crimes that always arise when humans are close to each other, even on a luxury ship like the Fairweather. Magnetic storms have interfered with the ship's computer, leading to computer problems, and even worse problems, leading to Dorothy being returned from sleep in a new body. A new body that might have something to do with a body in a stateroom. And one that might lead to a lot of other crimes, some of them repeated over and over.

The story is short, but sets up the world quite well, a interstellar ship, but leaves a lot of mysteries for further stories. I do hope there are more for this was a very well plotted tale, with interesting ideas, and even better interesting characters. The book is a little Philip K. Dick mixed with Miss Marple. And of bit of Ann Rule serial killing. There is a lot to the science of how the passengers exist on the ship, including a library that stores the thoughts and memories of people, allowing them to live long lives. Even if they are murdered, they can be rebooted and placed in new bodies. The characters are different, and one would like to learn more about them. Again I hope there is more stories I like the idea, and want to know more. I look forward to reading more in this series and more by Olivia Waite.

This was a cozy sci-fi murder mystery with a protagonist who loves to knit. The whole concept of memories and being reborn was fascinating and I love the queer representation here. I do wish it was a bit longer. The mystery felt a little underwhelming to me but overall I enjoyed it.

Dorothy wakes up in a body that is not hers. The waking up is not unusual, she is a passenger on a space ship on a centuries long voyage, but normally people wake up in a newer version of their old body. People’s memories are kept downloaded in their “book” kept in the ships library and when one dies the memories are downloaded into a new version of that person’s body. But Dorothy was not ready to wake up, much less in someone else’s body, but she is a ship’s detective and there has been both a murder and, worse, books in the library have been destroyed so the dead woman cannot be revived. Dorothy must solve the murder while her nephew figures out how to keep more “book” from being destroyed in the future.
This is a really quick read - Kindle says a bit over an hour - so more than a short story but not quite a novella. The premise is interesting. A space ship from earth on its way to somewhere on a voyage already into its third century. Rather than people in cryo sleep a method of preserving memories and then reinstalling them into a new (cloned?) body when the old one wears out is standard, basically no one really dies. With more or less ten thousand residents the ship is a thriving civilization and the characters we do meet, Dorothy, her nephew Ruthie and his boyfriend/partner John, are all interesting people we want to know more about.
I really liked the whole premise of this story and fervently hope we will see more of Dorothy and the other passengers. Recommended

4.5 Stars

This was so much fun to read. Just a really great sci-fi mystery condensed into this little bite-sized package! It’s like the novella version of an amuse-bouche. Just enough to give you a little taste of the ecosystem on this generation ship, the new norms that come with this technology, and what we might be able to expect if this story expands into a series—which I really hope it does!

I would definitely classify this as a “cozy mystery,” in the sense that it’s somewhat lower stakes. It’s not very action-forward. It doesn’t have that sort of thriller intensity that you might expect from a traditional detective story. And that’s totally fine, because that’s not what the story is trying to be. There is still a central mystery. Dorothy is still gradually uncovering clues and finding different pieces of the puzzle to help solve the case. But there’s really not a sense of danger driving the story so much as a moral urgency to help protect the other passengers aboard this generation ship.

Again, I really enjoyed this overall. Dorothy kind of discovers a love interest/potential Watson to her Sherlock towards the end, which is what makes me hope that this will expand into a series. If you know how I feel about the Mossa & Pleiti series, you know I love some sapphic sleuths in space. So I hope this is not the last we see of Dorothy Gentleman!

Murder by Memory is a cozy mystery novella by Oliva Waite set on a generation spaceship. Unfortunately, despite the intriguing setting, this didn’t connect with me for a number of reasons: the brevity of the novella form seemed to work against the story, neither the mystery nor the solving of it was particularly compelling, and the novel was both a bit overly expository and too twee for me.

The HMS Fairweather has been journey through space for 300 years, carrying thousands of passengers whose minds are stored in the ship’s Library so when their bodies wear out or are damaged, their minds can simply be downloaded into a new body. Meanwhile, passengers are free to ply their trades, amass wealth, partake in their favorite hobbies, and down “memory cocktails” that can call up a summer storm or other such memory experiences. It’s all pretty idyllic. Until ship detective Dorothy Gentleman, who has been resting in the Library, wakes up in the body of one of the passengers and is informed by the slightly tipsy (due to a magnetic storm) Ship mind that there is a dead body. Even worse, through her investigation, Dorothy learns that several minds have been destroyed in the library, meaning murder has now become permanent.

As I said above, much of this story didn’t work for me. The brevity of the novella form didn't do the tale any favors as there simply wasn’t room to do much with the various aspects: the purpose of the generation ship or how it’s run, the characterization, the investigation and resolution of the murder.

As far as the ship goes, there’s little sense of the day-to-day existence, of the way being en route for centuries have affected people, why they left or where they’re going, how the ship is organized. What details we do get over-emphasized (for me) the “cozy” nature, with lots of time — relative the length — spent on yarn, clothes, tea, cocktails, etc. And the Ship mind’s intoxication was a bit too cutesy, though luckily, we didn’t spend too much time in that mode.

The murder itself, despite the loss of minds, never feels like the stakes are all that high, partly due to the tone throughout, partly due to the motivation, and partly due to the nature of the crime itself. Its resolution involves very little actual investigation and what we do get is very straightforward and expository, with characters telling other characters what’s needed or our first-person POV just telling us. And it all gets bogged down in finance and business details.

Finally, the characterization is thin throughout. Our main character lacks any strong sense of depth. There are a few hints of some potentially interesting backstory, but those get scant mention, and the “romance” angle brought in feels unearned, the sort of “insta-romance” I’m never a fan of. It just didn’t feel natural or true. Other characters fare even worse, serving their plot purpose but that’s about it.

Murder by Memory is pegged as the first of a potential series set on the ship and with the same detective character at the center. If you’re a huge cozy fan, you might have a more positive reaction, but unfortunately, I didn’t find enough here to convince me to read a second book in the series.

Loved this!! Even if it doesn’t seem like it’ll be up your alley, give it a try!! You’ll be pleasantly surprised :)

This was a cute, short, and fun read. A lovely mix of a mystery, but in a sci-fi setting. I read the whole thing in two sittings, but it still told a full and complete story. A nice cozy sci-fi story!

If you like this book you will like Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

Loved the idea of a cozy murder mystery set in space. That said, this one never quite came together for me. All of the parts were there, but they never quite gelled. There was an awful lot of worldbuilding for such a short novella, and while I enjoyed what we learned, I wanted more. The extra worldbuilding came at the expense of character development, and I felt like I didn't know many of our main players. The mystery had a satisfying conclusion for me (even if I didn't understand some of the money stuff, the economics were one part of the world that didn't get enough of an explanation for me). Overall, a solid 3 star book. I would recommend this to the correct reader, though I have to admit that I'm not sure who the correct reader is for this one.

Loved Waite's romance books and would be interested in reading more if she writes more in this world, though.

Delightful and intriguing! MURDER BY MEMORY is a cozy sci-fi murder mystery helmed by a no-nonsense sapphic detective. I loved the massive spaceship-holding-the-future-of-humanity setting and the breadth and constraints of the world that Waite starts building in this novella. Excited to read future books in the series! Thanks Tordotcom for the advanced copy.