The Wages of Sin

One young woman dies and another vanishes on the same chilly spring night. Connor Cardwain sees no reason to link his cleaner Merissa's murder to a mystery anchored within a high-end warship sales team, but reconsiders his position when he realises both women were connected to a foreign runaway.
   Armed with an enterprising widow, an imperial spy and his own wits, Connor sets out to find the missing woman, in a city streaked with vice and a planet upturned by other ganglanders' ambition. If he fails to beat arms dealers, aristocrats, pirates and human traffickers at their own game, he and all his team will pay the price - and the wages of sin are death.
 
We were introduced to Zoë's universe, not to mention Connor Cardwain et al, in her acclaimed debut novel Sailor to a Siren, the first book in the Underside series:
 
'If you like your space opera fast and violent, [Sailor to a Siren] is for you' Jaine Fenn
 
'[Sailor to a Siren is] a perfect example of how to write entertaining and fast-paced space opera for adults with compelling characters and gritty scenes ... she is a talented author who has managed to pack a lot of story into a single novel and she has done it well. (More, please!)' RisingShadow
 
'Sailor to a Siren is classic science fiction ... Zoë Sumra's world-building is the best I have seen in a very very long time ... [an] outstanding debut novel' Marion L. Thorpe
 
 Visit bit/ly/WagesOfSin
 
 
With a fantastic cover from artist Alex Storer