Integrated: A high-concept, tech-noir mystery

by Tobey Alexander

Gareth Shaw’s DNA has been found at a murder scene inside the Red Zone. The only problem is that he was never there.

Ten years after the Neural Contagion pandemic, Britain is divided between the protected Green Zones and the abandoned Red Zones, where millions remain trapped behind quarantine walls. As a trusted investigator for the National Intelligence Authority, Gareth has spent his career enforcing the line between order and chaos, using a neural link to his KIRA android to investigate crimes in places no human can lawfully enter.

When a brutal murder in quarantined London leaves behind impossible evidence, Gareth is forced into a case that should not exist. His blood is at the scene. His reflection appears in a place only his machine should have been. And the deeper he searches, the more the official version of Britain’s survival begins to fracture.

The Red Zones were supposed to be contaminated. The walls were supposed to protect the living. The system was supposed to be keeping civilisation alive.

But someone has been lying.

As Gareth follows the evidence, he is pulled into a conspiracy that reaches from the ruined streets of London to the sterile heart of the Justice Capital. Every answer makes him more dangerous to the people he serves, and every secret brings him closer to a truth that could destroy his career, his marriage, and the society he once believed was worth protecting.

Because if the Red Zone is not death, then everything built to contain it is something far worse.

Perfect for fans of high-stakes dystopian thrillers, surveillance-state conspiracies, human-machine tension, and morally conflicted heroes, Integrated is the first book in the Borderline series.

382 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2026

About the author

It's always a bit weird trying to sum myself up in a paragraph or two but here goes. I'm a father-of-three curious little humans who probably reflect various elements of my personality, full-time worker on the Thin Blue Line, adventurer in my own right and live for the escape of the outdoors where I can. Ever since I was young I enjoyed creative alternative worlds and stories and I suppose having now "apparently" grown up I can put it to use as an author.

I write to release my own over-active imagination and at the heart of everything is always the idea of adventure. I want my books to offer everyone the chance to escape form the everyday routines and things that niggle at us. In my books for younger audiences I want to nurture that sense of wonder, intrigue and adventure I remember growing up. In the older audience I want to reinvigorate that sense and offer a break from mortgages, bills, work and stress.

I'm not perfect, far from it in fact and all I am trying to do is make the best of what I have. For me, over the years, I've found out I carry a rare genetic deletion with unknown effects but seems to put me on the autism spectrum. Learning that helped me accept that the "quirkiness" of my nature is more acceptable than I had thought. Every story I write, every book I release I have seen in my head, acted out and watched as if it were a film. The way my brain works helps me do this and I only hope you find something you enjoy in my stories.

Reviews

[Gail Cook]

I received a copy of this book from Voracious Readers. This is my honest review.

We’ve all experienced a pandemic with all of the restrictions and lockdowns that were involved but what if the government took things one step further?

What if whole cities were imprisoned in order to keep the virus contained and then as good as forgot about them?

This is a story of a future with just such a corrupt government. It uses control of the population through the use of KIRA robots and plasma barriers.

This book had me gripped from the first page. I found it difficult to put down. It is well written with very believable characters. I am looking forward to reading the next instalment “Unbound”.

[Helen]

A Neural contagen which leaves millions dead or irreversibly damaged

Britain is under quarantined infection control measures meaning large city hubs and now sealed behind zones walls

Following an investigation of an unsanctioned murder in a Red Zone, a plave where human entry is illegal. KIRA an android is deployed to investigate what happens through a Neural Link between human and investigator.

All seems to be the perfect team until things happen that can't be true or are they.

Lies deception and appearances might not always be what they are.