A Hard Rain

A crisis for Captain Picard – or a case for Dixon Hill, private detective?

A Hard Rain is a Pocket TNG novel written by Dean Wesley Smith. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in March 2002.

Summary

From the book jacket

Captain Jean-Luc Picard has long enjoyed playing the part of Dixon Hill, a hard-boiled private eye straight out of American pulp fiction. His holographic excursions into 1940s San Francisco, a colorful world of gunplay and gangsters, provide a welcome diversion from his hefty responsibilities as a Starfleet captain.

But not this time.

The starship Enterprise has lost power and control, its own momentum carrying it ever deeper into a dangerous zone of warped space and time. And the only way out is hidden somewhere in the mean streets and back alleys of old Frisco. But so is a cold-blooded murderer…

Now Dixon Hill, alias Jean-Luc Picard, must get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that threatens the lives of everyone aboard the Enterprise!

Background information

• The novel is based upon the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Big Goodbye".
• A Hard Rain was originally intended for publication in a serial format, with one chapter appearing in Pocket Books' releases each month (as with Starfleet: Year One). The decision was made to publish the story as a standalone novel instead. [1]^(X)

Characters

Jean-Luc Picard

Enterprise-E captain.

Beverly Crusher

Enterprise-E CMO.

Data

Enterprise-E Lieutenant commander

Geordi La Forge

Enterprise-E Chief Engineer

Bell

Ghost Johnson

Shoe

Joe "the Undertaker" Morgan

Arnie Andrews

Redblock

Barringer

Mr. Whelan

Enterprise-D Officer

Mr. Evans

Enterprise-D Officer

References

holodeck, San Francisco

Timeline

• 1940s
• 2370s

External link

• A Hard Rain at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works