C.F. Waller

C.F. Waller writes speculative thrillers that place ordinary judgment under pressure from technology, secrecy, and institutional power. Palindrome 656 begins with a long-missing vessel returning to orbit and a surviving intelligence operative facing interrogation about what happened. The novel unfolds through Hannah's account, making the reliability and purpose of her answers as important as the events she describes. Published in 2016, it opens the Palindrome sequence and combines space travel, political rivalry, memory, and counterintelligence. Waller's other novels include South Face, Free Dive, and Tourists of the Apocalypse, works that similarly use dangerous settings to test what characters know and what they are willing to disclose. Palindrome 656 is structured around competing versions of history: officials want a clear record, while Hannah understands that every answer can expose another allegiance. That tension gives the science-fiction setting the close pressure of an interrogation room.