A Million Monkeys

As a sci-fi novel overwrites her reality in blood, a detective explores what it means to be sapient in an increasingly hostile universe. Author Karin Cather bends genres in this excitingly gritty page-turner. Anyone in the galaxy could have killed Glenn Sommars. He was demented, abusive, and a Nazi to boot. Examining his myriad gunshot wounds, Detective Eliza Benveniste wonders whether this was a crime of passion or a steady-hearted execution. But the book says it was his son.Yes, the book. In a bestseller set light-years away, Cody Sommars kills Glenn identically-with a finishing lasepistol blast to the throat. Speculative and grisly, the novel provides fascinating insights into another world-and an extending trail of blood in this one.A murderous author? A fan turned copycat killer? Eliza's theories aren't adding up, and her cagey partner's distress grows with every new death-each one increasingly grotesque and inescapably book true. Even her confidante, the ever-rational Dr. Badri Trivedi, is starting to consider more ludicrous explanations.Having eliminated the impossible only to find that nothing remains, Eliza has only one option: to rethink the possible-and the very nature of her universe.