The Girl in the Machine

by Amelia Treader

The murder of his partner lands the hard-bitten private investigator Alan Blake in the middle of a complex international plot involving spies, crooks, resistance fighters, intelligent machines, and treacherous former loves. Never sure of what is the truth in a shadowy half-virtual world, he pursues the “missing person” case of an intelligent and beautiful young woman. A woman who was spirited away on the day she joined “The Academy.” How could she be hidden in a world where the omnipresent machines monitor everything you do and say?
Damaged goods himself, Alan battles his inner demons as much as the mysterious “mutual impedance society” or the not so mysterious Free State Militias. Living, by choice, on the fringes of society, he cannot drop this one case.
Something is rotten in the State of California, and it may not just be dead fish on the beach.

279 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2015

About the author

A child of the south, steeped in the mysterious aura that accompanies Spanish moss, mosquitoes and barbecue, Amelia has felt the urge to write ever since she was a little girl. Cats, dogs and children, not to mention a husband, and a career in computer security get in the way. Still, she has eked out the time to write a unique combination of romance and action.

Having survived a disastrous stint with booktrope, I've got two regency romance/spy stories out looking for publishers.

My friend and (usually hidden) coauthor and I are writing a fantasy/sf/horror book, which is turning out to be harder than it seems. I can crank out the regency stuff, but trimming horror to not give away the ending too soon is dashed hard work.

Apparently GoodReads has changed the follow/friend button. Can you, as a reader still be my friend? I hope so, the change wasn't my idea, and seems a bit (more than a bit) daft.

Reviews

[Peter Aronson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two-and-a-half stars, rounded up. While this has the sort of uncontrolled creativity that I associate (positively) with first novels, the plot is borderline incoherent, character behavior is highly inconsistent and the world-building suffers from having a hard-boiled detective novel shoved clumsily into a cyberpunk dystopia without any attempt to harmonize the different genres conversions. But I did finish it, and it was a pleasant enough read as long as I didn't think about it too hard. Could this be a trunk novel?

[Scott Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read about 15% and quit. Total waste of time.

[Clinton Sites · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild noir ride in the near future

This is a great read for those who are fans of the 50's hard boiled private eye novels.
Set in a near future that could be all too possible the case handed to PI seems simple - but of course it can't be.
The publishers blurb gives an excellent synopsis of the story.

The authors style of writing gives more twists and turns while continually engaging the readers attention. Just when one thinks they have a handle on the storyline - she throws a setting / suspect change that catches the reader off balance, yet moves the story along in a smooth way.

A very satisfying read!