Early Vorkosigan books were loaded with action, space and ground battles, and narrow escapes. Since Memory, Bujold has given us a more mature Miles, less reckless and rarely in physical danger. The books often blend the genres of mystery and science fiction. Bujold is adept at such combinations - her first published novel, Shards of Honor, was a superb blend of SF and romance, and her most recent novel, A Civil Campaign, was a nearly unique combination of SF and adventure with a comedy of manners. Her novella "The Mountains of Mourning" from Borders of Infinity, which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, was the finest blend of SF and mystery I have ever read. The current novel is in some ways the most successful yet. It combines the strongest elements both of Bujold's early novels and her more recent work. It works well as a mystery, and although the plot develops slowly, it ultimately builds to a conclusion as harrowing as anything Bujold has written, when Miles plays a desperate game against a resourceful bioterrorist to save himself, the population of Graf Station, and ultimately to prevent an interstellar war which could kill millions.

Diplomatic Immunity is clearly influenced by recent events, with bioterrorism as a major plot element. It's also quietly a novel about putting the past behind you. Miles and Bel unite for a final adventure much like their many earlier ones, but both are more interested in getting through it in one piece and returning to their families than in regaining the old excitement. In a conversation about old friends from Miles's Free Dendarii mercenary force, Miles asks Bel, "Haven't you heard? We're all getting to be history." "There's a deal of sanity to be saved in letting the past go, and moving on", Bel replies.

Science fiction and mystery chops are combined less successfully in another recent novel, The Consciousness Plague by Paul Levinson. This is a sequel to The Silk Code, an earlier novel which I have not read featuring detective Phil D'Amato, as well as several D'Amato stories previously published in Analog.

D'Amato is a homicide detective in contemporary New York City. In The Consciouness Plague, he is on the track of a serial killer who has dumped the bodies of several nude young women in a park. While his investigation hits false suspects, solid alibis, and the usual obstacles of a murder mystery, it also is slowed down by a less routine difficulty: D'Amato and several other characters find that their memories of certain recent events have inexplicably disappeared. D'Amato is soon searching for other possible historical instances of memory loss.