Killer in the Retroscape: A Near-Future Mystery

2019 BRAG Medallion Honoree2019 Eric Hoffer Award Honorable Mention - eBook Fiction 2019 Montaigne Medal Finalist for the years most thought-provoking books In 2068 St. Louis Missouri Dr. Douglas (Doug) Michaels finds his lifelong friend Josh Unger dead in his home. When law enforcement concludes his death was a suicide Doug and his wife Ali are dumbstruck; they wonder what could explain such a needlessly violent and lonely death in a future where such actions are unimaginable. Trying to unearth a killer be it either flesh and blood or the cumulative stress of life Doug creates a mental landscape of Joshs past a retroscape starting in the mid-2030s. Among its landmarks are: - An illness sensationalized in the media as the zombie pandemic that drives a wedge between husband and wife parents and children. - Cryptic communications between Josh and an after-life specialist who peddles immortality services. - A mysterious phrase uttered at the assassination of a government official that ties it to Joshs death 14 years later. - Joshs machine-intelligence wife Julia who may hold the secret to his death ... if she can only remember. In the end determining guilt in a retroscape littered with suspects tells Doug more about humanity technology and himself than he ever could have imagined.