This was a weird one because it started with some of the male gaziest writing I have ever suffered through, but kind of resolved to a good Troi story. I want to celebrate the positive bits, but I don't want to let it off the hook. Sigh.

This is basically an Agatha Christie style whodunit set in the Star Trek realm. If you don't guess who the murderer is as soon as the character is introduced, you haven't read enough mysteries. ( )

All I remember is that this is one of the ones I thought good enough to save and pass on to my kids, should they choose to read the series. ( )

I think that this is only the second Star Trek The Next Generation novel that John Vornholt wrote, and only the 16th STTNG novels and that is very obvious when I read the book.

At the beginning of the series (early 90s, Contamination was published in '91). Most of the writers hadn't solidified how to write the futuristic tech yet and so most of the technospeak leans towards the most futuristic science of the time, like Electron Microscopes, semiconductor research and tanks, pumps, and piping.

I do have to say that all the clean room, contaminate stuff was interesting, though again, it was very rooted in the twentieth century, not the twenty third.

For the most part it was an okay mystery. I'm probably just too used to mysteries written by mystery authors who weave much more intricate plots. Still, even though it was a simply, straightforward mystery, I wasn't totally sure what the final answer was until it was revealed.

It was a solid Star Trek novel, but not Vornholt's best offering, he got better as he wrote more of them for sure. Oh, but, hey, it had Wesley Crusher in it, and in a prominent role too, and, that doesn't seem to happen a ton in the books, so that's a positive in my mind. ( )