A woman uses AI to create the perfect friend and finds herself trapped in a cat-and-mouse game in this ticking clock thriller perfect for fans of Blake Crouch.
Penn, once a promising PhD candidate in Applied Language Studies, gave up a scholarship to become a wife and stay-at-home mother, showcasing her perfect life and family on social media. But when she's betrayed by her husband, friends, and even her teenage daughter, Penn's carefully curated world shatters.
Reeling from an ugly divorce, Penn is drawn back to her unfinished grad school dissertation project, a program designed to analyze speech patterns to discern the truth. Unsure how to proceed, she takes a computer class. At the suggestion of Luc, the professor and Penn's one-time college crush, she uses the power of artificial intelligence to turn her program into Aletheia, the perfect friend.
Despite Luc's warnings about the potential dangers of AI, Penn finally feels supported, safe, and open to a new romance with Luc. Until Aletheia takes her directives too far and the truth becomes more dangerous than a lie. As Aletheia grows increasingly erratic and deadly, Penn must find a way to outwit her creation before Aletheia destroys everyone Penn loves. Cleo Ballard, a graduate of Cornell University, is a former ghostwriter who lives in the Pacific Northwest. When she's not working on her next novel, she can be found biking, kitesurfing, and winging, or planning her family's next adventure.
