Infinite Archive by Mur Lafferty: Murder Among the Stars

Mallory Viridian, bestselling true-crime author turned amateur detective, is restless on the sprawling space station Eternity when no murders arrive at her doorstep. Juggling a baby sentient spaceship, interspecies etiquette lessons, and an editor demanding her next hit, she longs for the chaos that fuels her novels. That chaos takes the form of a massive transport ship carrying an entire murder mystery convention—and an enigmatic alien passenger of unknown intent. When a convention attendee turns up dead, Mallory must untangle clues across alien cultures and sentient technologies to prevent an intergalactic disaster.

My Review

Picking up Infinite Archive felt like returning to a favorite sci-fi TV marathon—familiar faces, bizarre alien customs, and plenty of head-spinning tech talk that somehow just works. Mur Lafferty’s sharp humor had me chuckling as Mallory navigated everything from officious diplomats to an agent hounding her for prose. As the body count rose, I was glued to every tense negotiation and fiber-optic fever dream sequence. While I recommend reading the first two Midsolar Murders novels for full context, I still found myself drawn in by Mallory’s voice and the station’s eclectic cast. Fans of Douglas Adams style whimsy or Rick and Morty-level absurdity will feel right at home aboard Eternity. This book will leave you feeling exhilarated and amused, convinced that a little cosmic chaos is the perfect cure for writer’s block.

You can get a copy of Infinite Archive by Mur Lafferty on Amazon or Bookshop.

If this has you intrigued, read an excerpt from Infinite Archive below.

Excerpt Preview

The worst thing about being part of an alien hivemind was you had to act like thousands of insect feet crawling over your body-including your face, neck, ears-and possibly trying to burrow into your collar was just fine.

The best part about being part of an alien hivemind? The jury was still out on that one.

Mallory sat motionless on her bed, eyes closed, reminding herself this was Just Fine. Even among the buzz of thousands of wings. Even with antennae probing and investigating every hormone she secreted. Even with a deadly allergy to Earth-dwelling insects of the Vespidae family.

She breathed slowly. Don’t think about that allergy thing.

Meditating was challenging for most people, but trying to meditate in the midst of a swarm of blue wasplike aliens was a new level. Most of the members of the Sundry were as long as her thumb, their stingers and venom sacs visible. She tried to go deeper into the meditation and ignore the dainty feet crawling over her eyelids and the delicate antennae probing her nostrils and ear canals.

Feel the station, the hivemind said.

She extended her awareness past her own discomfort and fear. It was hard to fight against decades of fear responses, but she was part of the hivemind, and the Sundry took care of their own.

All at once she was in her room; she was in the large hive in the park; she was crawling along a display case in the new deli; she was inspecting a ventilation shaft; she was on the wall of the shuttle bay (and spied a familiar shuttle, which almost made her remember something but not quite); she was part of a mindless swarm that gave processing power to the living space station that was Eternity. She could almost touch the sentient mind of the station, she was so close. She could feel it on the outskirts of the Sundry processing power. She felt she could reach out-

A crash threw her out of her meditation with a gasp. This caused all the Sundry crawling on her to take wing and move as one to hover above the chair next to her bed.

“What have you gotten into now?” she groaned, rubbing her face, ears, and neck to get rid of the lingering crawling sensation.

Excerpted from Infinite Archive by Mur Lafferty Copyright © 2025 by Mur Lafferty. Excerpted by permission of Ace. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Ready for More?

If Mallory’s interstellar investigation has you hooked, grab your copy of Infinite Archive today. When you’ve cracked the case yourself, come back and share your thoughts in the comments—I can’t wait to hear which alien clue threw you for a loop!

You can get a copy of Infinite Archive by Mur Lafferty on Amazon or Bookshop.