I Think I Was Murdered

I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker
11/12/24; 352 pages
Thomas Nelson, Inc.

I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker is a recommended romantic suspense novel for the right reader.

Katrina Berg is a lawyer at Talk, Inc., a Silicon Valley AI chatbot start-up company. Her husband, Jason died a year ago, so Katrina's best friend Liv Tompkins, the chief technology officer at the company, helped her grieving friend by loading a prototype of Talk’s AI software onto Katrina's phone. It allows Katrina to "talk" to Jason for comfort. Then her world falls further apart. The two women are shocked when the FBI raids the premises and takes it over. The chief executive of Talk, Inc. is under investigation by the FBI and has fled the country. At the same time Katrina's beloved grandmother Frida Berg, called Bestemor, dies of a heart attack. 

Katrina travels home to her family in North Haven, California for the funeral, where she learns that she’s inherited her grandmother’s restaurant. She reconnects with her old friend and a protege of her grandmother's, restaurateur Seb Wallace. On a particularly bad day, she asks Jason/the AI to "Tell me something I don't know." The reply is "I think I was murdered." Katrina begins to look into Jason's death enlisting the help of Seb and discovers it involves a mysterious Satoshi egg that contains the code to $30 million worth of Bitcoin.

Okay, this review is going to be all over the place. Reading I Think I Was Murdered is a challenge at the start because, honestly, the first part of the novel is so slow moving, has simplistic writing, and is not compelling. You may be tempted to toss the whole book aside. Assuming you can keep the following points in mind, keep reading and the intrigue will eventually pick up.

First, the novel requires you to set disbelief aside, big time, for the whole novel. Second, it is not a techno thriller, so those who follow technology, set more disbelief aside. Ditto if you expected a thriller. Third, the writing remains simplistic throughout the novel. Fourth, seemingly every character owns a Tesla. Fifth, Lila, the kitten found, was estimated to be 6 weeks and yet no mention was made of feeding her for several days. Sixth, the antagonists involve everyone and the kitchen sink. Seventh, the use of fentanyl for a medical purpose could have been simple called a pain medication.

Keeping these points in mind, I managed to continue reading and the plot did become more interesting with some action and suspense. The descriptions of the setting were good. The writing remained simplistic and the character development was basic. It involves light romance, which I knew it wouldn't be over-the-top with Coble. Although the ending was predictable, it was gripping. I have enjoyed Coble novels much more in the past. This one wasn't her best effort. 

If you enjoy cozy mysteries this might be a good choice. Thanks to Thomas Nelson, Inc. for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.