We’re celebrating the launch of CROOKED V.3 by spotlighting the authors who have contributed stories!
Robin Jeffrey lives happily with her husband and their out of control comic book collection in the PNW. She is the author of the urban fantasy series The Night, as well as the author of the mystery series The Cadence Turing Mysteries. When not writing, Robin teaches writing workshops to local writers and writers around the world.
TikTok: @thesidekick_author
Instagram: @thesidekick_ig
Facebook: @RobinJeffreyAuthor
Website: robinjeffreyauthor.com
Tell us a bit about your story “Ransomware”
Classic mysteries with scifi twists: that’s what I try to offer to anyone picking up an entry in the Cadence Turing Mystery series. In a far flung system of planets, in the distant future, humanity has made some astonishing innovations, none more so than the creation of Animanecrons, androids indistinguishable from humans in appearance and behavior. Intended as vessels for the neural networks of the freshly deceased, no one anticipated that these androids would develop consciousness of their own. Exiled to a far off moon, their society flourished until humanity couldn’t help but interfere.
Now, Cadence Turing, an animanecron, finds herself on the human-populated planet of Arrihadeus, where she forms an attachment to Chance Hale, head of the billion-credit corporation who was originally responsible for the creation of animanecrons. With a memory bank full of old earth mystery and crime novels, Cadence finds herself in the position to help the local Enforcement Office out from time to time solving their thornier puzzles. And Chance? Well, he is just going to have to come along for the ride…
What was the inspiration behind this story?
I really wanted to do something more action packed with Cadence and Chance and rescuing a kidnapped teenager seemed just the ticket! Plus, the title “Ransomware” was right there—I couldn’t help myself!
If you could travel to any science fictional world, where would you go and what would you do?
Becky Chambers’ world she has created for her Monk & Robot series. I would love to explore that sustainable world and find my place in it. Besides, if there’s even a chance to maybe become a tea monk? Uh, yes please!!
What are some of your favorite sci-fi crime books or stories?
I love Asimov’s Mysteries—it was probably the first collection of sci-fi mysteries that I ever came across and it proved to me that such a thing was possible!
What authors have inspired your writing?
Terry Pratchett—his ability to seamlessly blend genres and ideas is a constant inspiration for me, as well as his dry wit and humor. Agatha Christie—the grand dame of mystery herself, I wouldn’t be an author if I hadn’t started reading her books at a tender age. On the scifi side of things, C.L. Moore and Ursula K. Le Guin—the way they create new worlds that are so familiar and so alien at the same time is truly inspiring!
What are you working on next?
Cadence and Chance are far from finished having adventures! I have a fourth book in the Cadence Turing Mystery series planned that I hope to start working on soon. I also have an urban fantasy series that I’ve started, The Night, of which Book Two, Bloody is the Night, will be hitting shelves in November of this year! The Night is a series of interconnected standalones, so you don’t need to have read book one to read book two. If the thought of werewolves unraveling mysteries gets you excited, this might be the series for you!
CROOKED V.3
