I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker is this week’s Reader Friday. Here’s the first line (although I’m not sure anything can beat the title). “In 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto laid an egg. Jason Foster found it two weeks ago, and he’d been running for his life ever since.”
What an opening! But first the photo and verse. I took the photo late yesterday evening in the rain, but it was the first time I noticed the Amaryllis was blooming, and I had to snap a picture. And I love that verse in Psalm 139…in fact I love all of Psalm 139!
Now for I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker. Here’s the cover and back copy:
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 Take:
I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker was such an intriguing story. It drew me in and didn’t let go. Katrina and Seb were great characters and the twists and turns kept me flipping the pages into the night.
I had a real feel for Jason through the chatbot. The idea of a chat that could collect every bit of data a person posted and then respond to questions based on that data was fascinating. I’m a tech junkie and loved the whole concept of the chatbot, especially when it gave clues to who might have killed him. I kept trying to guess who did it. It’s a story that will keep the readers guessing. Readers of romantic suspense will love it. Great story!
Okay Readers what are you reading this week? Leave the first line in the comment or just comment, and I’ll enter you in an April drawing for a beautiful pen handcrafted by Dr. Steve Hooley, a $60 value. You can see more of his work at his website.
And now for something that will have you smiling the rest of the day:
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Comments 18
I have read I think I Was Murdered and loved it. I just finished Lost Hours by Susan Sleeman. Great book!
Author
Ohh, Phyllis, Susan Sleeman writes great books…I have several on my TBR stack and must get them read and reviewed here!
The Lake of Lost Souls by Jamie Wright. Another great book.
Author
Shanon, I so agree!
Gorgeous amaryllis bloom and lovely verse. Oh wow, that title and first line, so enticing! Great review, Pat. I am reading All Shall Be Well edited by Sarah Law. It’s a poetry anthology in which all the poems are about Julian of Norwich, an anchoress and theologian from the late 1300s and early 1400s. The first line:
Tempest rages/a Voice says ‘Pause’/Stillness/Light
Author
Thank you, Priscilla. That is deep reading! Have a great weekend!
I have read I Think I Was Murdered. It was so good.
Author
I agree Suzanne!
nice quote
Author
Thanks, BN!
Gorgeous Amaryllis Pat, and such a fitting verse! You truly have the gift of matching the right scripture with the right photo! Thank you for brightening my day!
I, too, have read I Think I Was Murdered – great read! I love Colleen Coble’s books.
I am now reading Expired Promise by Lisa Phillips. I have read a number of her books and enjoyed everyone.
Wishing everyone a blessed weekend!
Author
Mary G, I also have several Lisa Phillips books on my Kindle and I’m looking forward to reading them. Right now I’m deep in edits so I’m reading nothing. Maybe tomorrow.
That is one stunning photo, Pat. Good eye! And, you picked the perfect verse to go with it.
“I Think I was Murdered” was indeed outstanding.
I still have a silly grin on my face after watching that Grampa Jones video. Thanks for getting my morning off to a jolly start.
“Doyle” by Susan Warren starts with “Three months on a Caribbean island helped a man find clarity. Sunshine, sand, and most of all, the children of Hope House orphanage had loosened the grip that grief had on Doyle Kingston.”
Author
Love the opening to Susan May Warren’s Doyle, Tim. And thanks for liking the photo. That’s great coming from you. 🙂 Next week I’l be reading Steven James’s book…the name is not in front of me but it’s the one before Fatal Domain. (I read them out of order by accident lol)
Okay back to the edit for me…
That photo of the amaryllis is stunning. I love the beads of water on the brilliant red of the flower. Beautiful. I love Psalm 139, too.
Wow what an opening and a review. I have not read, “I Think I was Murdered, yet.” But boy does it ever go on my TBR list! Great review, Pat!!
“Grief lashed at Finley Wilbanks’s heart while rain pelted the windshield. the wipers worked overtime as dusk deepened. She hadn’t intended to be driving this road in the dark. She hadn’t intended a lot of things.” This is the first paragraph of Suspicious Homicide by Elizabeth Goddard.
Author
Thank you, Barbara! The beads of water were on my face too. lol I think you’ll like I Think I was Murdered! And I haven’t read this Elizabeth Goddard book, either…must rectify that.
I postponed my trip to Chattanooga to finish the edits so I best be to it!
I have read “I Think I Was Murdered” and I loved it. I just started another book by the same authors. The first line is “Death is a lonely business” and the book is “What We Hide”.
Author
Oh, Linda, you are in for a treat! I reviewed What We Hide here.