Space Cops: Kill Station by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood

Evan Glyndower is Welsh. Joss O'Bannion is Scottish. But they are both Space Cops, partners in Service. Evan is a "Suit" Cop who wears a special combat suit, while Joss is more the detective, with an interest in Chemistry and really old movies and bits of what would be to us modern culture. Despite their coming from different parts of Great Britain, they get along fairly well, although Evan spends a lot of time taking care of his suit while Joss twits him with zingers and complains about how restricted his upbringing is.

But now, they are sent on a mission to the "Outer Belts", a group of Asteroids beyond the orbit of Jupiter, to look into the disappearance of Belter ships. While the Belters are used to disappearances, this number of missing ships seems unusually high, and the fact that the ships just vanish instead of turning up again wrecked or salvaged, means that this isn't the usual sort of missing ships case.

Starting out at the nearest space station, and stopping place of most of the missing Belters, Joss and Evan first find a place to stay, then check out the local bar to try and make friends. Well, it turns into a brawl, but there is more than one way of making friends, it seems. And while the two of them torture their livers with the local alcohol, they also start looking for answers, and finding that the Belters feel something is up as well. But the Belters don't really trust cops, so the local office on-station is both overworked and underwhelmed with cases and help, respectively. Evan and Joss have to go through the reports by hand because so much happens that the local SOP can barely keep up with putting his reports into the system.

And they find out, much to their own surprise, that the problem is even bigger than their SOP bosses suspect. And the ships are being salvaged, but hidden with other salvaged ships due to be broken up for scrap, and their interiors tell both Joss and Evan that it's more than certain the Belters who once owned those ships are dead. But who would be attacking the Belters? They are rough and independent, true, but they generally keep to themselves while helping their own who need it.

The Answer lies out in the Belt itself, and when Mell, one of the women the two have developed an interest in, is kidnapped from the station, Evan and Joss begin to suspect that someone out there in the belt is planning insurrection, and death for the government of Earth. But the question is, can they find them in time to do something about it, and can they stop it alone, or with the help of the SF, the Space Forces? Because this variety of trouble may be a little more than they can handle on their own.

I enjoyed this book, and this series, a lot. Many authors write rather gritty books about space, where everyone is serious and grim, because space is a deadly place unforgiving of mistakes. Yeah, this book has some of that, too. but the two characters are far from grim and spend lots of time taking joking potshots at each other, mostly based around their areas of origin (Welsh versus Scottish) and others poking fun at their former jobs or hobbies (Evan used to be in the armed forces, but was let go for being not only too good at his job, but liking it to much and Joss has all of those old time TV shows and movies he spouts off about).

It's such a refreshing change to read about these characters that the stories are fun to read, even while the plots themselves are as grim and serious as can be. But even though the characters joke and are funny, there is quite a bit of tension as they chase after the deadly serious plots and people who are causing mayhem out in the Belt. It's also wonderful that the characters are intelligent. and you really get to understand the kind of detective work they are doing to follow the trail of the bad guys.

If you've wanted a fairly light-hearted space adventure with heroes who aren't afraid to joke or take a joke, you will definitely want to give this series a try. It's old, yes, and out of print, but it still gives bang for the buck, as well as plenty of enjoyment. Highly recommended.