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About The Book

In this gripping sci-fi noir for fans of The Martian and Quentin Tarantino, when an anarchic android begins wreaking havoc on a moon-based penal colony and bodies start turning up, an exiled detective must decide who he can trust in a city of criminals.

Never bang your head against a wall. Bang someone else’s.

Purgatory is the lawless moon colony of eccentric billionaire, Fletcher Brass and mecca for war criminals, murderers, and curious tourists alike. You can’t find better drugs, cheaper plastic surgery, or a more ominous travel advisory anywhere in the universe. But trouble is brewing in Brass’s black-market heaven. When an exiled cop comes to enact law and order in this wild new frontier, he finds himself the lead investigator in a series of high-profile murders that puts him toe to toe with the city’s charismatic founder and his equally ambitious daughter.

Meanwhile, 2000 km away a memory-wiped android, Leonardo Black rampages across the lunar surface. Programmed with only the notorious “Brass Code”—a compendium of corporate laws that would make Ayn Rand blush—he journeys across the dark side of the moon with only one goal in mind: find Purgatory and conquer it.

About The Author

Anthony O’Neill is the son of an Irish policeman and an Australian stenographer. He was born in Melbourne and lives in Edinburgh.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 28, 2016)
  • Length: 400 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781501110658

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Raves and Reviews

"Inspired lunacy...satisfying on every level."The Wall Street Journal

"A smart, rollicking sf-detective-noir genre-blendwith a delightfully dark and snide sense of humor...This incredibly entertaining novel is unmitigated fun to read, and is sure to be at the top of many genre readers' favorite books of the year."—Booklist, Starred Review

“The Dark Side is what would happen if Raymond Chandler met Arthur C. Clarke while Isaac Asimov lurked in the shadows. It’s a two-fisted lunar detective story that has everything I’ve ever loved in a book. A good cop. A corrupt system. Mysterious murders. Moon colonies. Chase scenes. Killer robots. A damn fun book!”—Peter Clines, author of The Fold, 14, and the Ex-Heroes series

"Noir reigns supreme in this mystery set on the far side of the Moon. Rife with morbid humor and tense action that makes excellent use of the setting." –Publishers Weekly

"[O'Neill's] characters have enormous appeal—even the ones you're aware are about to be horrifically murdered. And to relieve the grimness he offers his trademark weird puns, flashes of wit, and mordant humor...Reveling in the low gravity, a yarn that bounds along in fine style, spraying gore and body parts."—Kirkus Reviews

“Writing as sharp as a nanofilament dagger, a story as dark as the space between stars. And disgracefully, bizarrely, irresistibly funny.”—John Birmingham, author of The Axis of Time series

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