Mars Confidential

The American Dream goes interplanetary. When a crew of mobsters tired of Earth's feds blasts off for Mars, they expect a fresh start. What they find is a civilization of gentle, trusting Martians who have never encountered human greed. The gangsters' opening move: introducing sugar, a substance the Martians can't resist, and building an empire on addiction. But as the scheme grows, so do complications. Browne's novel is an acid take on colonialism and capitalism exported to the stars. The satire is broad, the prose pulp-simple, but the underlying idea remains wickedly funny: humanity's true export to the cosmos would be the con. It's a 1950s time capsule of both progressive sympathy for exploited innocents and the era's less enlightened attitudes, wrapped in a premise so absurd it almost circles back to genius.