Artificial intelligence has invaded all of our lives. But Marci Warden is well aware that AI can do wonderful things. She works at a law firm that has clients who understand and manipulate AI brilliantly. Marci has even programmed virtually everything in her home with artificial intelligence to simplify her life. However, one day, AI causes her house to go crazy; instead of making her life easier, it ends it.

While some in law enforcement want to deem Marci’s death simply a tragic accident, the FBI is called in to investigate it as a murder. FBI agent Jude Mackenzie reluctantly partners with Special Agent Victoria Tennant, who convinces him to see the case from her perspective. In doing so, she discovers that she can teach him about AI. But Mackenzie has uncanny hunches that, while old school, prove unerringly true. They might make a good team after all.

"In Heather Graham’s highly original novel, figuring out who did the killing and why takes some doing. One has to be as clever as they are."

That will be helpful as they have a couple of other suspicious deaths on their radar, one involving a boat and the other involving a car. The agents believe that these also could be tied to Marci’s murder. But other than a computer gone haywire, what’s the connection? Marci was a well-liked receptionist at the law offices of Wharton, Dixon & Smith.

Everyone the agents interview say that Marci had no enemies. In the case of the car that veered into a tree, the driver was known as the Hanging Judge, so there were plenty of people with a motive to kill him. But none of them have any ties to Marci. As for those on the boat, there were three prosecutors, which certainly could lead someone with a grudge to commit murder. But there’s also the captain, who had a reputation for drug running. Maybe there’s some kind of law parallel? It’s possible, but Tennant and Mackenzie can’t find any overlap with the killer’s targets. The more suspects the agents interview, the more baffled they become. Then AI strikes close to home.

Realizing how much of our everyday lives involve computers makes investigators rethink how they approach the cases. First, their security system. They must ditch high tech in favor of a four-legged furry fellow named Clover. In order to tamper with Clover, you’d have to get close to him, and that may not be so easy. Next, their cars. There are no more modern rides; only autos manufactured before 1965, ones that cannot be hacked into, are allowed.

In other words, as much as technology and AI can assist us, it also can be used against us. And in these murders, AI has been used as a weapon. So they have to go back to a time before all of that and work with paper and pen instead of iPads, maps in favor of GPS, a dog rather than alarms and sirens. Tennant and Mackenzie must stay one step ahead of their killer, whoever that may be, or find themselves the next victims.

THE MURDER MACHINE takes an ingenious approach to homicide. By hacking into a person’s computer --- car, boat, house --- it makes an alibi a moot point. Investigators could be having lunch with the killer at the time the murder is committed and not realize it. In Heather Graham’s highly original novel, figuring out who did the killing and why takes some doing. One has to be as clever as they are.