An Undiplomatic Murder

Book excerpt: Cadets Ritchie and Fitz finally face their last year at the Oymyakon Foreign Service Academy. Which means decision time for what comes next. The golden wings and ivory robes of a diplomat? Or the crossed spears and navy blue uniform of a guardian? Before they decide, they and the other last-year cadets first spend a week on the university planet, visiting both of the colleges. A single day at the guardian school exhausts even the most highly trained of the cadets. But the first night visiting the diplomat school ends in a very undiplomatic murder. One of the guests at a mock state dinner dies in the middle of the dessert course, a victim of a very gruesome poison. And the only suspect? Cadet Shackleton Fitz IV. So Murdina Ritchie finds herself alone on a strange planet with its own set of rules, desperate to prove her partner's innocence. Hard enough under any circumstances, made harder still by the presence of two former Oymyakon cadets: Finn and Feena Berweger. Can Ritchie defeat her old nemeses one more time? Maybe. Can she do it with her best friend and close partner in crime-solving trapped in police custody? She has to. An Undiplomatic Murder, book five in the Ritchie and Fitz Sci-Fi Murder Mysteries.