The Martian Cabal

Sime Hemingway can't sleep in the opulent Martian hotel. Something is wrong. The red deserts outside his window seem to press closer, and the alien luxury of Mars feels less like comfort than cage. Then she appears: a mysterious young woman, Princess Sira, materializing from his mist-bath like a ghost born of steam and desperation. She warns him of a conspiracy reaching from the gilded halls of Martian government to the shadowy boards of Earth's financial empires. War is coming. Someone wants it. And Sime Hemingway, lone officer of the Interplanetary Flying Police, stands between peace and annihilation. But who engineered his arrival on Mars, and why? As he navigates treacherous politics, ambitious warlords like the dangerous Scar Balta, and a rebellion brewing in the desert cities, Sime must decide: trust the woman who emerged from nothing, or believe the governments that sent him there. Starzl's 1930s planetary romance pulses with Cold War paranoia dressed in rocket ships and alien landscapes, a thriller where every luxurious room hides listening ears and every whisper could trigger an interplanetary war.