Another excellent Liz Bourke recommendation. (Thanks!)
Sometimes I forget that, with audiobooks, my usual rule that a book has 20 minutes to give me something to care about isn't a successful approach. I have no problem with books that open with a prologue that is not immediately relevant although later becomes revelatory, but when a book I'm listening to in audio does it, I feel like I've sunk all this time into the beginning story and have no payoff.
Moral of the story: it's worth it in the end. At least for this book.
The jacket Information called it a space opera in the vein of Lois McMaster Bujold, which is the single best way to sell me on a work of SF. And Bonesteel did not disappoint. Compelling characters, a plot that—after the prologue—felt nearly breakneck even in audiobook form, and the best kind of space mystery. It was very much to my taste. I listened to it in three days.
The one sign I found that it was a debut novel was Bonesteel's tendency to rely on expressions and the look in someone's eyes to convey a hell of a lot more information than I've ever been able to read in my closest friends. It felt like a bit of a cheat to give us a sense of multiple characters thoughts while still staying in third person limited pov. And without making the characters talk to one another. But neither of these made me enjoy the book materially less.