Consequences
Consequences is a Retrieval Artist novel. The series (with two previous books) is set in a universe where humanity interacts on a regular basis with many alien cultures of varying degrees of strangeness. Many of these alien cultures have strange laws or taboos that humans can be subject to horrible penalties for violating – whether they know that they are violating the alien’s laws or not.
This conflict of interest has spawned a small, but significant, industry: making people “disappear” for the purposes of evading the consequences of breaking an unjust (by human standards) alien law. Unlike typical criminals, the “disappeared” are usually respected and wealthy people who can afford to pay exorbitant fees in order to start life over – simply because those who are not rarely have the opportunity to violate alien taboos. The law doesn’t look too hard for them… but the aliens themselves usually do, and if found, justice is applied on the spot.