Tech billionaire Tim Scott's wife is dead, or missing, or... Abbie Cullen-Scott has disappeared and nobody is quite sure if she has committed suicide or been murdered or run away. Her husband uses his tech company and brings her back to life in the form of a cobot (a companion robot). Has he created a replacement for the wife he loved so much? Is he just using her as a proto-type to launch his next AI money maker or is this something else entirely? I found the plot to be very well paced, even with 2 distinct time lines. One timeline told from the point of view of Abbie, the cobot, who at first learns as chunks of memory data are uploaded or retrieved and later her learning becomes more organic and autonomous. The second timeline is told from the point of view of an unknown insider that's been with the tech company from its earliest days. The intersect of those timelines resulted in and ending that was – WOW. Not what I was expecting. This is a very interesting story that has the reader thinking about what it is to be human, while stretching the boundaries of the possible with self-aware AI. The peeks into the world of life as a parent of a child on the autism spectrum and the pathways of learning and understanding and teaching are also very thought provoking. There is enough detail given throughout that I was convinced that I could see what had happened, only to toss that theory aside and come up with a new one over and over. The end was so full of twist after turn after false start and doubling back that the pages just could not turn fast enough. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy thrillers, mystery and a little light sci-fi. Overall a great read. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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