Oops! My black hole! I dropped it!

Sounds like a preposterous premise for a novel, but that more or less describes the basis of Earth. Except it is not as lighthearted as that statement. 

The Earth is in great environmental trouble and many people disagree on what to do about it. Environmental groups and opinions are fractured, with the usual mix of extremists who believe everything from the world would be better off without humans to those who still love going out unprotected in the now more dangerous rays of the sun.

This is hard sci-fi. Not for those who don't want to think or read about technology and its potential impact on humanity or even the entire world.

It's also a murder mystery. The victim isn't dead yet, and with some work will survive the attack. We'll just leave it at that.

The story is complex with many substories. It can be hard to keep track of the relationships between all the characters... who knows who, who is related to who and who really means well after all?

Although Earth was first published in 1990, its predictions are pretty good. Not nearly as dated as it might be.