Testament of Leaves

By Carolyn Ives Gilman

​​In the isolated thickets of a faraway planet, a linguist lies dead. Inscrutinator Shameesh Kulkarni must find out why. But no one wants to talk: not the prospectors searching for mineral wealth, not the archaeologists trying to piece together a ruined city, not the local schoolteacher, and certainly not the indigenous people whose language the dead woman was researching.

Only two beings are interested in helping Shameesh solve the murder: a digital replica of the victim herself, and the inquisitive octopod who befriended her. Three brains are better than one, even if one is a bot and another is an invertebrate, because there is more than one mystery here to solve.

Here, the landscape itself hides layers of centuries-old secrets-secrets that the inhabitants must protect at all costs. Shameesh's job is to reveal the truth-on a planet where the truth cannot be spoken.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1958880302
• ISBN13: 9781958880302
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Fairwood Press LLC
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 8.0"