Once again I find myself enjoying this series. I actually raced through book 1.5 and book 2 to get to this one. It blurs together for me at the moment. I'm glad it did because all three feel like three episodes of my favorite show. I don't see any reason to not keep reading more stories in this series.

I read this book via NetGalley. I thank them for this book. ( )

So very, very enjoyable. Ray Electromatic is the Robot's Robot of the dirty streets of LA Noir. Sometimes he's a PI and sometimes he's a hit-robot-for-hire, but what makes him really stand out for me is his memory issues.

He runs on RAM. Poor Ray! Every day, he comes back with the same template as before. Useful when he needs plausible deniability, it's a real pain when the damn mysteries keep coming back. And back. And back. :)

This one has a lot of fantastic reveals and snappy dialogue. Ada, the master computer who gives Ray his jobs, is out of the picture for a lot of the tale and Ray has to figure out who the next Job is on his own! Who does he have to kill?

Oh, the nightmare!

Of course, I was just happy that it could have been anyone because this is classic Noir, but the final reveal was very satisfying. And very SF. :)

I'm LOVING this kind of genre-mashup. Big time. The best of both worlds.

And I'm probably going to have to scream for more of this. It can't end here. We have to have MORE. :)

Sladek, Wells, Martinez... we need more like this!!! :) ( )

The third and final instalment in the Raymond Electromatic, I ONLY KILLED HIM ONCE sees robot detective, turned gun for hire, in the fight of his "life".

"Life" requires a bit of wiggle room here as Raymond Electromatic is a robotic detective / hitman with a 24 hour long memory, and a computer overlady called Ada who sets him off on each job every day with a newly installed memory tape and no idea what he's done, or where he's been before. Except for knowing that he's a robot, that he "talks" to Ada, how to detect and a bunch of other things that may ring some "what the" bells if you're new to these novels.

But, some personal past history. Really enjoyed the first book in this series, MADE TO KILL; developed a slight dose of the bleaghs when it came to the second, KILLING IS MY BUSINESS; so wasn't too sure what would be served up in the third. This whole scenario seemed so unusual and original in the first book, but struggled a little to maintain that freshness and quirkiness in the second. This third novel, however, works as a closing chapter, if indeed this doesn't turn out to be another one of those trilogies that loses count.

As three short, sharp, unusually placed novels, the Raymond Electromatic series is fun. You could probably read any of them, including this one, as a standalone, but you may find yourself with a desire to go back and read the earlier two, and personally, this reader felt like they worked better in sequence. Raymond doesn't have a lot of character development (what with him being a robot and all), but there's something about the build up of the relationship (well sort of) between him and Ada that leads to events in this third novel that help flesh out the circumstances. To say nothing of explain just what / why and where Ada and he fit together. Although you may find that some elements (yes we get his memory tapes are 24 hours long) can get a bit repetitive.

All in all, these are supposed to be fun, a bit on the tongue in cheek side, definitely different and a strong genre-mash up, so the Raymond Electromatic series, and I ONLY KILLED HIM ONCE need to be taken with a hefty sense of humour.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/i-only-killed-him-once-adam-christopher ( )

Today, July 10, 2018, marks the release of I Only Killed Him Once by Adam Christopher, the third and final novel in the Ray Electromatic Mysteries series. This is a great science fiction noir mystery series featuring the very last robot in operation working as a hit man using the cover of a private detective when unwanted eyes begin to pry.

In this novel Ray Electromatic wakes up with a fresh reel of tape for 24 hours of new memory and a man in a black hat in the front room. The man feels familiar, even if Ray can’t remember him. He comes with a warning, not a job. If something’s amiss Ada, the supercomputer who runs things, isn’t talking. Things quickly go for bad to worse as Ray’s memory ticks down to zero.

This was a great conclusion to the Ray Electromatic Mysteries series. Ray is just as fantastic a character as always. His voice is unique, and he a genuinely fun character to follow on adventures. This particular case proves to be a difficult one as things quickly spiral beyond Ray’s control.

Ada is missing for a good portion of the novel. This means that Ray is truly on his own. The well timed phone calls from Ada are gone. Details to the hit Ray’s supposed to be carrying out are largely missing. Ray is forced to figure things out completely on his own, going back to earlier days when he worked as a PI. This is complicated due to limited memory space. If he knew more details yesterday it was all wiped when a new reel was installed during the night.

All loose ends are wrapped up in this third novel. Questions that have lingered from book one are finally addressed. We get more information as to Ray’s creation and the various robotics divisions encountered in the previous two novels.

Now, I don’t want to say too much about this novel. The books in this series are on the shorter side of the page count, and being the last of three novels room for accidental spoilers abounds. Needless to say, I very much enjoyed this series. Ray is a very welcome voice, a fun, hardboiled detective with a great personality. He’s very reminiscent of old noir film detectives, a feeling that permeates each book. the novels themselves are very atmospheric.

I must acknowledge the author’s sheer skill in making Ray and Ada so very likeable and relatable. They’re nothing more than a robot and a supercomputer, after all, even if they were patterned after humans. The way in which the virtual clink of a spoon in a ceramic cup can fill a silence and relay the feelings of a character is absolutely wonderful.

Though the Ray Electromatic Mysteries may be over, I am surely going to be seeking out more of Adam Christopher’s books. If you have not read any of the Ray Electromatic Mysteries, I would highly suggest picking up the first book of the series. Unlike some of the other mystery novels I’ve read, I do suggest reading these books in publication order. I Only Killed Him Once by Adam Christopher was a great conclusion to the series, and a book I highly recommend.

This book was sent by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review originally found on Looking Glass Reads. ( )