The novel “Necropath” by Eric Brown was published for the first time in 2009. It’s the first book of the Bengal Station trilogy. It’s a revised and expanded version of the novel “Bengal Station”, published for the first time in 2004.

Jeff Vaughan is a telepath who works for the authorities of Bengal Station, a spaceport between India and Burma. His abilities, enhanced by neural implants, weigh heavily on his mental state so he tends to isolate himself from the company of other people. His situation gets worse when a beggar he was fond of dies of a drug overdose. Vaughan is forced to act when he comes across a strange religion born on another planet that seems to be linked to some suspicious deaths.

Sukara is a girl who has lived a life with no luck in utter poverty since her ealry childhood. The circumstances led her to work as a prostitute in Bangkok and separated her from her sister. Every day she might be hurt by some violent customers and she’s lucky to have aliens customers, who require particular services but are more gentle than humans. One day she receives a letter from her sister and discovers that she lives at Bengal Station.

“Necropath” is set in a future where interstellar travel is normal, as well as the presence on Earth of alien travelers. Bengal Station is one of the Earth’s spaceports and the cover of the book is misleading because it shows a space station in orbit but instead it’s a ground-based structure, like an airport.

The basis of “Necropath” is composed of many classic elements of science fiction with spaceships and aliens, but also telepaths, however the story is basically a hard-boiled detective story with noir tones. Eric Brown uses various cliches of these genres around the characters, who are by far the most important part of the novel. As a result, for example, no technical information are given about the propulsion that allows to make interstellar trips quickly because this is not a hard science fiction story.

Unlike the science fiction stories of the old times, in “Necropath” there are no spotless heroes who live great adventures on shining starships but a future version of what can happen around a seaport or an airport. There are ordinary people who survive as they can, even with prostitution or begging.

The main plot of “Necropath” is dedicated to Jeff Vaughan, a telepath who has seen too much in the minds of the people and therefore tends to be depressed and to avoid unnecessary contact with other people. As it’s inevitable in such stories, his past hides dark secrets that are revealed in the course of the novel. Vaughan tried to escape his past but in the end the time come when he has to deal with it.

A secondary subplot is dedicated to Sukara, a sci-fi version of the prostitute with a heart of gold that over time has specialized in “special services” for the aliens who pass through Bangkok. Her story is initially disconnected from the events on Bengal Station but in the course of the novel links are slowly formed with the main plot. Again we slowly discover the character’s past.

The science fiction detective story didn’t seem particularly brilliant. The various twists, including the one at the center of the revelation about Jeff Vaughan’s past, tend to be rather trite. They too aim to further develop the characters and especially the protagonists, who not accidentally are definitely the best element of the novel.

The pace of the story is generally fast and even the flashbacks tend to contain a lot of action. At about 400 pages it’s not short but by today’s standards it’s not very long eigher, also because the science fiction elements are largely taken for granted so Eric Brown can just tell the story. This allows a smooth reading of “Necropath” that can lead the reader to overlook the extensive use of cliches done by the author in this novel.

All in all, “Necropath” is a good novel that mixes science fiction and hard-boiled detective story in a good way. It’s the first book of a trilogy but has its own conclusion so if you want to see if it’s suitable to your taste you can do it without being forced to buy its sequels to see the end of the story. For the type of content I can recommend it to anyone who appreciates stories about losers.