Polar City Blues

Polar City -- the capital of Hagar, one of the planets in the forlorn Star Republic, a human-dominated entity caught in the power politics between the enormous Interstellar Confederation and the Coreward Alliance. The leaders of these entities keep their alien eyes on the Republic in the hopes of one day adding its territory to theirs. When an alien member of the Confederation is found murdered in Hagar's public square, the situation turns dangerous fast. To solve the case, Police Chief Al Bates must depend on an unlikely ally, cashiered Navy officer Bobbie Lacey, the only sapient onplanet who knows what goes on in the ghettos and underworlds of Polar City.