When a major drug theft from a pharmaceutical company in a community on the Lagrange colony orbiting Earth turns bad leading to a death and a potential kidnapping, Interworld Marshal Cuss Abbott is assigned to investigate and track down the perpetrators, who have seemed to have escaped on a cargo ship back to Earth. However, when the investigation seems to reveal that the cargo ship with the criminals is being redirected with an orbital slingshot move out to the Utopia mining colony on Mars, Cuss joins up with fellow marshal, Eve Boucher, on a journey to intercept the perps, while dealing with a distant colony run by a couple of syndicates in a Wild West fashion. In the second novel of the new Cuss Abbott sci-fi police procedural series, author Doug Cooper has amped up the drama and added some blur to the boundaries of justice, while maintaining a scientific basis in creating the futuristic world that the characters must navigate. The complex tale is very engaging. ( )