The Worst Detectives in the Federation

Dumb Luck and Dead Heroes, Book 5

By: Skyler Ramirez

Narrated by: Michael Murphy, Madeleine Brolly

An entire naval task force, gone without a trace...

When a battleship and its escorts mysteriously disappear near a contested area of space, they leave no clues behind, and their own Navy is preparing for war and can’t spare the resources to find them.

Which wouldn’t really matter to ex-Navy Captain Brad Mendoza. He finally has all he ever wanted: a ship, a crew, and the most beautiful woman in the galaxy as his girlfriend. Seriously, can life get any better?

But that’s when Carla Mendoza, his ex-wife, appears, begging Brad for help to find the missing task force and its flag captain, the man she left Brad for. Still, it’s an easy no, except that Carla has a clue, a mysterious note, that Brad can’t ignore.

Now Brad and Jessica are in way over their heads as they find themselves playing detective while also dodging their own Navy and an enemy force, both of whom would love to see them dead. And it’s only with a ton of dumb luck that they’ll get out of this one.

The fifth book in the fan-favorite Dumb Luck and Dead Heroes series, The Worst Detectives in the Federation picks up where The Worst Rescuers in the Republic left off. A humorous, action-filled adventure full of mystery and intrigue, you’ll love seeing our two scrappy and often hopeless dead heroes race to save a galaxy on the brink of war. Part military science fiction, part space opera, and part detective thriller. Order today!

©2024 Skyler S. Ramirez (P)2025 Skyler S. Ramirez

Fun listening.

I’m loving this series in no small part to the narrator. I think the books, if read, would be a little formulaic. But in audio form, they’re delightful. I sure hope the author doesn’t up and marry the protagonists. The story moves and the narrator is right-on point. I generally avoid audiobooks with more than one narrator, but the female narrator also was very good.

brads.human like innocent little bit of the moron in all of us.

I can day I wanted more and it was tonshott gonna get the next book. can't wait for the next one.

Great book and fun listen

Thoughtful book in between the action sequences. Brings real depth to otherwise lie hearted fun space Navy novel.

DR:The story of two Brad's, still-proactive action

Having been reunited and confessed their mutual feelings, Brad's ex-wife make an appearance. Pleading with the protagonists to help her find the missing stallion of the empires space navy whom she's currently romantically engaged. Talk about awkward! Having too big of a heart, Perciphony the second's command decides to take on this task. Traveling to the Fringe the space nazis, jazonians, never leave protagonists calculations as another player aiming to secure stellarium (the super precious metals) for their own star nation.

While Jacob's world's daughter, the pirate masquerading as the supposed daughter of the planetary colony's establishing family, played a role in making Brad and Jessica realize and act on their mutual feelings. Katherine, brad's ex-wife, serves as a soundboard to drip feed key to the future of the series exposition about Brad's past to readers and protagonists' crew alike. A final punctuation for Brad of emperor's space navy and the current Brad.

Second book in, the crew of Perciphony the second is still fresh and not written out, only character having dubious dibs for being detailed could be Harris, but as he has had very little written about him, I think author themselves hasn't yet conclusively decided what to do about the character, that's a hard no. The final parting ceremony with one of the crew members felt overdone, thankfully author used it as a means of wider story telling, introducing future arc and spending more time on characters beside the protagonist duo. Personally, writing is missing long-term payoff, heavily favoring reactive rather than proactive action, e.g. need to explore a star system going in blind, wham, a far more advanced than anything previously mentioned stealth ship is right at hand's reach.

Conclusion: 3/5. Listened on Audible included in plus catalogue. Narrated by: Michael Murphy, Madeleine Brolly. Predicting, hopefully, that the introduction of a relative of the emperor who had previously been involved in a plot to coup d'etat the sitting emperor, with the prior storytelling of the deep seated corruption in emperor's inner circle and nepotism pays off in, oh I don't know, a coup d'etat against said emperor and a conclusion to the promised revenge against the emperor's serial rapist nephew. The King's Cross' agent protagonists' have been close to is still in play, this sort of (believable, multi-step) information gathering is what I wanted to see in book #3. With the increase of the book length story has benefited. Terrible value for the length of the book, buying it with USD- 2.28 $/hour (17.99 $ / 07 hrs 53 mins ).

Values:
Terrible: >1.66 $/hour
Bad: 1 - 1.66 $/hour
Good: <1 $/hour
Dream: 0.4 - 0.27 $/hour

Stars:
1 - Not worth the resources to reproduce/preserve this title.
2 -Bad
3 -Good
4 - Personally, love it
5 - Recommended to everyone