I know who the killer is. I just have to figure out which suspect they’re hiding in. I caught the killer in Earth’s first moon colony, and believed I’d stopped them once and for all, but they got away.
I follow the killer to Earth, where they start kidnapping the people I know from my days at the Off-World Hotel & Resort. This time around, the killer has planned an even more sinister game for me—and paired me with the most unlikely of partners. If my partner and I lose this game, 9 innocent people will lose their lives.
I'm a mystery novelist and professional stand up comedian based in Philadelphia.
My debut novel, Cube Sleuth, was published by Full Fathom Five Digital.
As a stand up, I've opened for acts including Richard Lewis, Gilbert Gottfried, Dana Gould, Tim Meadows, Colin Quinn, and Maria Bamford.
I've been featured on the RISK! Podcast, episode 350 Out of Bounds.
I'm currently writing and publishing a novel/graphic novel hybrid mystery series called Alter Ego. It's a supernatural mystery about a detective hired to uncover the secret identity of Blue, the world's first and only superhero.
You can read the first two chapters for free at AlterEgoBlue.com and enter your email there to get notified when it goes on sale on Amazon.
The sequel to the review above has officially been released! I was not a beta reader for this one so I was able to read the published version nice and fresh. This review will likely contain spoilers for the first book of the series.
In the review for the first book I said that I thought the sequel would surpass it by being able to jump into the story without having to include exposition from the Off World Hotel & Resort series from which it spins off. Unfortunately, I cannot say that Shell Game is superior.
The sequel picks up where the first left off with Coba going to Earth to find rogue AI Aiden before he can do some serious harm. She doesn't know exactly what his plans are just that he definitely has ill intent against Coba and all humans.
This mystery will be deeply personal to Coba as Aiden starts to kidnap all of the remaining characters from the Off World series. She is surprised to be paired up with her favorite mystery author to determine who amongst the kidnapees has been possessed by Aiden's murderous intelligence.
The mystery she's meant to solve has been intentionally designed to mimic one of the author's thrillers. They intend on using what they know about the books and the players to solve the mystery without anyone dying in the process. Aiden is determined to see Coba kill one of her beloved humans just to prove a point. Also, he's pretty twisted.
The bulk of the book involves flashbacks or recaps of the first Artificial Detective story. Coba uses interrogations to determine who is still themselves and this involves knowing a lot of what happened before this story takes place. This strategy makes perfect sense and it's reasonable that this would involve redundancies from the first book, but it doesn't make for a very exciting read.
Terruso's previous mysteries had me turning pages as fast as my eyes could move but this one had me skimming lines. I'm sorry to say it just doesn't stand on its own and barely suffices as a full sequel. To be frank, it reads like a clip show.
Do not let Artificial Detective 2: Shell Game deter you from Terruso's other works. I've said this before about prolific authors and I doubt my opinion will change, when you write a lot and are willing to try new things you have a few misses. This is actually a good thing. I know some people are content to read the same airport thriller over and over again just with different titles but I like some variety.
Read the original Off World trilogy to see what you're missing and be prepared for a lot more thought provoking reads from this author.
In ARTIFICIAL DETECTIVE, Coba the Robot solved the case on the Moon, but the murderer escaped her. Now he is loose on Earth, an AI brain able to jump from body to body. He could have been anywhere, except that he is fixated on Coba and wants to play games with her - deadly games, because he hates humans and Coba is determined to defend his innocent human victims. Now he has kidnapped the people Coba knew on Off-World, using them as his game pieces.
Author Terruso has put at least as much thought – probably more – into giving Coba the Robot an in-depth personality than he has into his human characters. Her determination to prevent the AI's wanton harm requires that she read human personalities, so to give her a chance Aiden has provided her with help.
This was an interesting story. I really didn’t like the first part of the story, but the author managed to make the latter part much smoother, so it was a good read.