Author:	Larry Niven
Copyright:	1980
Date Reviewed:	9/16/84
Rating:	7.5

Synopsis: During the second Lunar Law conference (20 years after the first), the forth speaker for the Asteroids is shot in the chest by a laser from the lunar surface. The only possible suspect, the only person on the surface at the time, is the beautiful Naomi Mitchison. The famous investigator Gil "the Arm" Hamilton of the A.R.M. who is representing the U.N. at the conference, doesn't believe that his former lover could be a murderer; and he sets out to prove it. As punishment on the moon for murder, and many other crimes, the condemned is placed in a holding tank. If the decision is not reversed in six months, and it never has been, the criminal is broken up and the pieces placed in the organ banks.

Review: "The Patchwork Girl" is a fair detective story. It had been a few years since I last read a story about the early part of the tales of known space. Although I don't believe it could happen that way, the organ-legging society is interesting. I like the conflicting views about what laws are right. The Earth is most strict, the asteroids are liberal and the moon is somewhere in between.

In any detective story, the ending, when the true criminal is revealed, is the most important part of the story. This ending was pulled out of thin air. I expected the attempted murder to be done for political reasons. Any side could have been plotting it. It could have looked like lunar rebels started it and then turned out that some other group was involved. Political intrigue would have been much more interesting than having the mayor (himself!) commit the murder because the victim knocked up his wife 20 years ago.