Detective Morgan Blackburn commands New Dresden's Homicide Division with icy perfection and methods that push ethical boundaries. When her investigation into Jenna Langston's autonomous vehicle murder reveals surveillance gaps and evidence tampering, Blackburn faces a conspiracy that threatens the city's embrace of AI-powered policing.
The case leads her to James Zhang, a gaming executive whose car killed Jenna while he was supposedly home, and witness Kendria Chaplin, whose theories about autonomous vehicles prove disturbingly prescient. But Jenna's death is just one battle in Blackburn's war for control. Her own team is fracturing. Detectives are tracking her movements, accusations fly, and she juggles a complex cold case involving a celebrated surgeon whose reputation may be built on murder.
As Chief Hayes pressures her to make arrests without sufficient evidence and reporter Brynn Cassidy circles her cases, Blackburn must navigate department politics while maintaining her complex personal relationships. With surveillance closing in and her authority under attack, she faces her ultimate test: can human justice survive when the machines turn predator?
