By Kelly Bridgewater
A grieving young widow. The AI
program that allows her to continue to "talk" to him. And a message
she never expected: "I think I was murdered."
Just a year ago, Katrina Berg was at
the pinnacle of her career. She was a rising star in the AI chatbot start-up
everyone was talking about, married with an adoring husband, and had more money
than she knew how to spend. Then her world combusted. Her husband, Jason, was
killed in a fiery car crash. Her CEO was indicted and, as the company's legal
counsel, Katrina faces tough questions as the Feds take over and lock her out
of her office. The final blow is the passing of her beloved grandmother.
Her most prized possession is the
beta prototype for a new, ultra-sophisticated chatbot loaded onto her phone.
The contents of Jason's email, social media backups, pictures, and every bit of
data she could find were loaded into the bot, and Katrina has
"talked" to him every day for the past six months. She has been
amazed at how well it works. Even the syntax and words the bot uses sound like
Jason. Sometimes, she imagines he isn't really dead and is right there beside
her. She knows it's slowing her grief recovery, but she can't stop pretending.
On a particularly bad day, she taps
out: Tell me something I don't know.
The cursor blinks for several moments and seems frozen before the reply flashes
quickly onto the screen: I think I was
murdered.
Distraught, Katrina returns to her
cozy Norwegian-flavored hometown in the northern California redwoods and enlists
the help of Seb Wallace, local restaurateur and longtime acquaintance, to try
to parse out the truth of what really happened. They must navigate the
complicated paths of grief, family dynamics, and second chances, as well as the
complex questions of how much control technology has. And staying alive long
enough to do that is far more difficult than either of them dreamed.
My Thoughts:
I Think I Was Murdered
by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker had more suspense in this story than the first
one. Is it a top-notch suspense novel? No. I still think it lacks a lot of
nail-biting moments and characters running for their lives. Pretty safe. I
honestly never thought the characters were in any danger. Near the end when the
climactic moment occurred, then the main heroine’s, Katrina, life was in
danger, but really nothing throughout the novel. The plot featured a lot of
family issues for the hero, Seb. He is trying to handle his father and family
while trying to deal with the romance with Katrina. Trying to solve the mystery
of the AI texts that Jason, Katrina’s deceased husband who claims he was
murdered. Growing feelings. Nothing really spiritual to the characters or the
plot. Overall, I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker is
a lackluster suspense novel. Didn’t really capture my attention. Reads more
like a Contemporary Women’s fiction with a hint of suspense near the end.
I received a complimentary copy of I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble
and Rick Acker from Thomas Nelson Publishing,
but the opinions stated are all my own.
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Purchase I Think I Was Murdered
