Very Hard Choices

Target:  Smelly the Telepath!

Smelly.  Hermit by necessity.  The world’s most receptive telepath.   But now sinister forces within the government are after Smelly for their own nefarious purposes, and only empathetic journalist Russel Walker, with the aid a mysterious former spook who may not have Smelly’s best interest at heart, can stop them!

The sequel to the touching and creepy Very Bad Deaths, another spell-binding thriller and tome of wisdom from master storyteller (and Nebula and three-time Hugo-Award-winner), Spider Robinson!

“An inside-out crime tale with a warm and friendly aura…humanistic entertainment.”
— AudioFile on Spider Robinson’s Very Bad Deaths.

Cover Art by Stephen Hickman

Hardcover
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, June 2008

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Robinson, Spider.
  Very hard choices / by Spider Robinson.
       p. cm.
  "A Baen Books original"—T.p. verso.
  ISBN 1-4165-5556-0
1.  Widowers—Fiction. 2.  Psychics—Fiction. 3.  Police—British Columbia—Fiction. 4.  British Columbia—Fiction.  I. Title.

  PS3568.O3156V48 2008
  813'.54—dc22
                                                            2008005951  

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5556-8
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5556-0

Copyright© 2008 by Spider Robinson

This book is copyright © 2008 by Spider Robinson; all rights reserved. Permission to upload any portion of it to any part of the Internet, except for excerpts of 1,000 words maximum for review purposes only, is specifically withheld.

A Baen Books Original
Baen publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Electronic version by Baen Books
https://www.baen.com

Dedication:

For Jim Baen, David Crosby,
and John Barnstead:
wise, kind and generous men.

ADVISORY:

This program contains scenes of violence, nudity, sexuality, adult themes, casual drug use, committed drug use, incorrect politics, coarse language, fine language, extensive use of fixed, nonmoving cameras, and numerous shots lasting longer than three seconds. Viewer discretion is definitely NOT advised: tell all your friends.

Books by Spider Robinson:

*TELEMPATH
CALLAHAN'S CROSSTIME SALOON
*STARDANCE (with Jeanne Robinson)
ANTINOMY
THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS
TIME TRAVELERS STRICTLY CASH
MINDKILLER
MELANCHOLY ELEPHANTS
*NIGHT OF POWER
CALLAHAN'S SECRET
CALLAHAN AND COMPANY (omnibus)
TIME PRESSURE
*CALLAHAN'S LADY
COPYRIGHT VIOLATION
TRUE MINDS
*STARSEED (with Jeanne Robinson)
KILL THE EDITOR
*LADY SLINGS THE BOOZE
THE CALLAHAN TOUCH
*STARMIND (with Jeanne Robinson)
OFF THE WALL AT CALLAHAN'S
CALLAHAN'S LEGACY
*DEATHKILLER (omnibus)
*LIFEHOUSE
THE CALLAHAN CHRONICALS (omnibus)
*THE STAR DANCERS (with Jeanne Robinson)
*USER FRIENDLY
*BY ANY OTHER NAME
THE FREE LUNCH
CALLAHAN'S KEY
GOD IS AN IRON and other stories
CALLAHAN'S CON
*VERY BAD DEATHS
VARIABLE STAR (with Robert A. Heinlein)

* Baen Books