Off Rock -- Kieran Shea

It's the year 2278, and there's still no cure for the flu, which is just one of the many problems that plague Jimmy Vik in Off Rock. Not that he has the flu, but the guy supervising his shift does, and that means that Jimmy's former girlfriend is his supervisor when he discovers a huge hunk of gold on the asteroid where he's working as a miner. The gold isn't supposed to be there, and Jimmy is contemplating ways of getting it for himself.  And if he can, the problem becomes one of how to get it "off rock."

In a way, Off Rock is a caper novel, at least to begin with, because there's a lot of careful planning involved with moving that gold.  Unfortunately for Jimmy Vik, he has to team up with a shady character named Jock, who's not only treacherous but marked for death by a shady organization that's sent a beautiful assassin to the asteroid to kill him.  And then things get complicated.

One of the things I enjoyed about Off Rock, besides the story, was the very real world that Shea creates.  It's a scruffy, lived-in world, and it's very well done.  The book zips right along, the plotting is clever, there's humor, and Shea has a great time telling the tale.  Check it out.