The Preserve

The critically acclaimed author of the "bold, innovating, and thrilling" (Stephen King) novel The Thirty-Year Death and the "brilliant" (Booklist, starred review) novel Barren Cove returns with a dark and compelling mystery set in the near future.Decimated by plague, the human population is now a minority. Robots—complex AIs almost indistinguishable from humans—are the ruling majority. Nine months ago, in a controversial move, the robot government opened a series of preserves, designated areas where humans can choose to live without robot interference. Now the preserves face their first challenge: someone has been murdered. Chief of Police Jesse Laughton on the SoCar Preserve is assigned to the case. He fears the factions that were opposed to the preserves will use the crime as evidence that the new system does not work. As he digs for information, robots in the outside world start turning up dead from bad drug-like programs that...