Kristine Kathryn Rusch » free fiction, Free Fiction Mondays » Free Fiction Monday: The Karnikov Card
Free Fiction Monday: The Karnikov Card
Secret Master of Fandom and Private Detective Spade faces an impossible mission: He must save Celebcon Five from itself. The convention that’s trying to out Comic-con Comic-con has decided to make Dmitri Karnikov its guest of honor. Spade doesn’t want the mega-celebrity anywhere near a science fiction convention. When a celebrity of Karnikov’s wattage agrees to attend, something’s wrong. Then Spade’s mysterious friend Paladin reveals the secret to Karnikov’s attendance, and Spade must act quickly—or Celebcon Five might become a crime scene of the worst possible kind.
“The Karnikov Card” by Shamus Award nominee Kristine Kathryn Rusch is available for $2.99 on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, and in other e-bookstores. If you like “The Karnikov Card,” you might like the first Spade/Paladin adventure, “The Case of the Vanishing Boy” (Kindle, Nook, Smashwords), and the first Spade adventure, “Stomping Mad” (Kindle, Nook, Smashwords). 
The free story will only be available for one week. If you missed this one, click on the links above. There’s another free story lurking somewhere around this site. Track it down, read, and enjoy.
Filed under: free fiction, Free Fiction Mondays · Tags: mystery, science fiction convention, spade/paladin
5 Responses to "Free Fiction Monday: The Karnikov Card"
Wow!! What a great story and it rang true all the way through. I have had enough experience with Con Coms to feel the reality of it.
Reading my way through the Retrieval Artist books again (in order, this time) to prepare myself for Anniversary Day. Enjoying them again as much or more than the first time.
Hope that you will be able to collect these stories some day and publish them in one place.
PS Spade sounded like our recently departed friend (at least in my ears).
Thank you so much. This story is the one which started me looking for your work. Now my Rusch collection is up to almost 80 items, tracking down magazines and the Monday treats. Hoping for more Spade!
Cheers.
Thanks, Jane. I’m so glad you enjoyed this. And yes, Spade is based on Bill. I wanted Bill to pose for the cover, with his back to the cover and a fedora on his head. He wouldn’t though. He was my major advisor on these stories, so it’ll be weird to write one without him. He didn’t get to see the last one (coming in Hitchcock’s in late 2012/early 2013) and I feel bad about that.
As for collections, yeah. I need to do that when I have the rights to 5 of them. Then the Spade/Paladin novel…
So much to do, so little time.
GeekyGal. I’m so glad that Spade/Paladin started you on my other works. Yay! You can always read some on your computer/e-reader too. There are about 200 titles there with more coming all the time. (If you want to read on a big screen, just use Smashwords.com.) But there will always be stories in the magazines too. Thanks for the comment.