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 .

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  episode . 
 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.

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 
 

cs:A Hard Rain
Hard Rain, A