Yesterday I finished up reading “The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles” by Malka Older. It was the second book in the Investigator Mossa and Scholar Pleiti series and was just as good as the first. I found myself quite frustrated that book three isn’t out yet. Older has created a rich world that balances all the science necessary for living in orbit around Jupiter, with the stodginess of Ivy League life.

The characters are reminiscent of Holmes and Watson if they were both women and rather dysfunctionally in love. Mossa is an investigator (police) and Pleiti is an academic specialized in trying to reconstruct an Earth type biosphere based on very little data. Mossa and Pleiti were lovers in college, then estranged for years before being thrown together when Mossa returns to campus for an investigation (book one).

Old feelings rekindled, but the root cause of their breakup remains. Luckily they are both older and wiser so they’re trying to make another go of it in between (and during) investigations. In a good who-done-it catching the bad guy is given but the fate of their relationship is very much up in the air. Both plot lines make for excellent reading.