This book will capture your attention from the beginning. If you like mystery, intrigue, fast-paced, action-packed books, then this is the book for you! Katrina has lost her husband in what she thinks is a terrible car accident. An AI program that her best friend helped develop allows her to "talk" to her deceased husband through a bot by using data from her husband, Jason's, emails, social media, pictures, etc. He tells her "I think I was murdered". That is the start of a lot of Katrina's life and career being turned upside down. There are people that start coming after her for something they think her husband possessed that was very valuable. They now think Katrina has possession of a bitcoin key that is worth 30 million dollars! Katrina reunites with a friend of hers growing up. Sebastian helps Katrina to try to solve this mystery and to stay alive. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #netgalley #thomasnelsonfiction

Right away, the summary of this story begged me to read it. The technology that allowed Katrina’s husband to reach out from beyond the grave to help her solve his murder seemed futuristic but it exists and I enjoyed following along as the authors explored the what ifs.

The romance between Katrina and Seb was a slow build, which made sense because she was still dealing with grief. Seb’s character was very patient and I rooted for him to win the girl. The suspense was page-turning and there were a few twists that I almost didn’t see coming.

I received this book complimentary from Thomas Nelson via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All of the opinions I have expressed here are honest and completely my own.

The premise of this story was so timely and tied in a lot of the buzz words we hear regularly. The thought of using a chat bot to help one cope with the loss of a loved will strike a nerve in the heart of many readers. I personally couldn't help think what if. As someone who has worked in IT for my entire career, I found the concept utterly fascinating. Again, drawing from my own experiences, the book was very relatable to anyone who has suffered a loss. We move from a relatable story to one with a modern take on an Indiana Jones style treasure. Again, the author knocked it out of the park with making the treasure something timely but still a bit fantastic.
After we get to meet the characters the tension ratchets up with multiple characters thrown in the action and life threatening race to find the egg and its key. Katrina and Seb were so well suited and watching her overcome the need to hold onto the past to move forward with a great guy was the perfect complement to the dangerous criminals and tension. The side characters both got into the action and got their own drama and story line. The character development was fabulous, especially Dylan. He underwent such a drastic shift in circumstance that readers had to cheer for him. Speaking of undergoing a dramatic shift, Katrina and Seb's backstory was really cute and sad making their love story all the more poignant.
I selected this book because I love tech stories but stayed for the drama and the roller coaster ride through a modern day treasure hunt.
Unfortunately, there were a few things I did not love. Sometimes it felt a little like getting clobbered over the head with a few concepts such a Seb worked a lot of hours. It didn't detract much from the story but still felt unnecessary. My other complaint was the words that I had to look up used somewhat frequently without definition. I had not idea what hygge was all about but easily understood chat bots. I think the author should have included a few definitions for the Norwegian word and foods.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and wood recommend it. Come for the concept but stay for the story. I will be looking for author books by these authors.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This intriguing thriller blends grief, technology, and suspense into a captivating story. A year after her life implodes - losing her husband in a tragic car crash, the CEO of the AI startup she works for is indicted, and as the company's legal counsel, Katrina finds herself under intense scrutiny as federal agents take over, barring her from the office. To make matters worse, she then suffers the loss of her beloved grandmother.

Katrina clings to a secret beta chatbot that mimics her late husband. But when the bot suggests that his death wasn’t an accident, it makes her question what she thought she knew.

After returning to her hometown in the Northern California redwoods, she teams up with Seb, a local restaurateur, and her friend and co-worker Liz to uncover the truth. This is a tense, thought-provoking read that will keep you turning pages until the stunning conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas Nelson Fiction and authors Colleen Coble; Rick Acker for the opportunity to review the advance copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is Christian Fiction at its best, a page turner, and wanting more.

Just when you think you know the answers, nope, all the way to the last page and beyond to the epilogue, new answers kept coming, and not always the way you want them to.

The author gives us some sweet romance, but we are ducking bullets and fists, and around the next corner there is more!

We have a young woman whom is deeply grieving the death of her husband, and with the help of technology she is comforted by his texts, or what the bot is writing, until she get a disturbing message!

We journey with this young lawyer back to her hometown and family, and danger follows!

I found myself holding my breath, and at the same time looking for answers!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Thomas Nelson, and was mot required to give a positive review.

Okay, I couldn’t put this book down. It was crazy intriguing and addictive, trying to solve the case. I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker was a highly unique and suspenseful who-dun-it. I would love to see a book 2 with the same cast of characters, it was so thrilling!!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions expressed are completely my own.

** “Pain was a part of life, but joy couldn’t be suppressed and always came back.” **

Colleen Coble once again joins forces with Rick Acker to deliver another incredible thriller with “I Think I Was Murdered,” a story that could be ripped from today’s headlines.

Katrina Foster can seemingly communicate with her dead husband Jason through an up-and-coming chatbot designed by her best friend Liv Tompkins. But when the chatbot tells Katrina he believes he was murdered, and when the tech company both Katrina and Liv work for is investigated by the FBI, the two women return to Katrina’s hometown to seek answers.

Meeting again her high school acquaintance, Seb Wallace, a restaurant owner who once worked at her grandmother’s restaurant, the three work together to find answers about the tech company and also if and why Jason was murdered.

With a shocking ending, Coble and Acker fill “I Think I Was Murdered” with twists and turns and an action-packed storyline with enough romance to keep the lovers of love happy. They develop intriguing characters that deal with past traumas, overcoming trials and finding confidence in their abilities.

The story is also filled with several great themes, like learning whom to trust; there’s always room for love (“Love was a funny thing — no matter how much of it you thought you’d used up, there was a limitless capacity to experience more”); forgiveness; “the most important things in life aren’t tangible”; overcoming grief and betrayal; and finding what is lost.

Fans of authors like Terri Blackstock, Irene Hannon, Lynette Eason and even some Mike Dellosso novels with love “I Think I Was Murdered,” which is due out Nov. 12.

Five stars out of five.

Thomas Nelson provided this complimentary copy through NetGalley for my honest, unbiased review.

Such a fantastic book! I love the sci-fi elements and the futuristic AI thing where you can speak with people who have already passed away. It is so interesting and it was definitely a great mystery with lots of secrets and twists and turns!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Interesting book. I haven't read many books about AI and it made me think about the ethical ramifications of this new technology. In my career, I haven't had to worry about business strategies and I struggled with this in the book. The personal and family relationships in the book are more within my comfort zone but I feel a book that makes me feel unsettled is good for a change. This is the second collaboration I have read by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker and will continue to pick them up.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this book for me to enjoy!

Katrina Berg is the main character in this book. She is legal counsel in an AI chat box start-up that had really taken off, but then the CEO flees the country and the FBI is investigating the company. Katrina is also struggling with personal matters - her husband died in a car crash a year ago and her grandmother, who she was close with, has just passed away. To help her deal with the grief of losing her husband, Katrina uses the AI program her company developed to “talk” to her husband. One day she asks the program to tell her something she doesn’t know about him and it replies “I think I was murdered”. She goes back to her hometown to escape the downfall of the company she’s worked for. She also starts looking into her husband’s accident and the events leading up to it. I thought it was an interesting premise - an AI app to help replace a person and aid in grief. The story dragged a bit in a few places, but otherwise kept pulling me in and kept me interested to find out the conclusion. I thought we got a lot of insight into the main character but the minor characters weren’t given much depth. I enjoyed the book overall, it was a good mix of mystery and romance. I give the book 4 stars out of 5.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on Nov. 12, 2024.

Personally this book was a bit too romance heavy, but I enjoyed the mystery.
Katrina has been talking to a chat bot that mimics her recently deceased husband. When it tells her that Jason thinks he was murdered, Katrina will do anything to find her husband's killer and what her husband has gotten into.
The mystery here was really fun to unravel. I enjoyed how it included current technology as well as a beautiful, small town feel.
There is a lot of romance in this book, so much so that it felt like this is a romance with a little mystery. I often felt that the dialogue was cheesy, but at the same time the characters are sweet. This book gave me some Hallmark movie vibes.

It’s been a rough year for Katrina Berg, and things are about to get rougher. Her husband, Jason, died in a car accident a year prior, and now her beloved grandmother has died. She left Silicon Valley to head to Northern California where her family is, and finds out she inherited Bestemor’s, her grandmother’s Norwegian waffle restaurant.

She’s not sure if she wants the restaurant though; she’s a high-powered attorney at a company called Talk, Inc. Well, at least, she WAS, until the FBI raided their offices and the CEO left the country. Katrina wasn’t involved in the embezzlement that was happening, but she’s pretty shaken and worried she’ll be indicted. Maybe staying with her family would be for the best. She’s still lost without her husband, though she does have one way of keeping in touch…

Talk is a prototype of an app that lets you speak with dead people. By downloading the contents of her husband’s phone, she can text with him, and the responses are pretty accurate. One day, she asks him to tell her more about his accident, and she gets a creepy reply: “I think I was murdered.” This gets her searching for more answers, with help from an old high school friend, Seb.

Talk is definitely the most interesting part of the book, and the reason I wanted to read it, but that was actually a small part of the story. This turned into a mystery/action book, that oddly is also a Christian romance book, unbeknownst to me when I chose to read this ARC. Most of the book was pretty good, but the ending got really cheesy with the romance and religious parts. I don’t mind religion or romance, but not in my fiction books, and definitely not in a book I thought from the synopsis was a sci-fi thriller.

I thought the writing in this was great, and the parts where Katrina communicated with her dead husband were also really good. Towards the end, it just got overly dramatic, and that, along with the unrealistic love story and the sudden and constant mentions of God that weren’t in the rest of the book, left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. If you like Lifetime/Hallmark movies with happy endings and a bit of a thrill, this is your book. If you like thrillers with lots of twists and craziness, this one isn’t for you. Your rating will depend on how much cheese you can tolerate, and unfortunately, I’m lactose intolerant. 3.5 stars, rounded down.

(Thank you to Thomas Nelson, Colleen Coble, Rick Acker and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on November 12, 2024.)

What would you do if an AI chatbot told you, a loved one was murdered?
A young widow grieving. This artificial intelligence program allows her to continue talking to her husband. A message she never expected: “I think I was murdered.”
Katrina Berg was at the top of her career just a year ago. An AI chatbot start-up star with an adoring husband, she had more money than she knew what to do with. Suddenly, her world blew up. Jason, her husband, was killed in a fiery car accident. In the aftermath of her CEO’s indictment, Katrina faces tough questions as the Feds come after her office. Her grandmother’s passing is the final blow.
Her most prized possession is a beta prototype for a new, ultra sophisticated chatbot she has downloaded to her phone. Katrina loaded Jason’s email, social media backups, pictures, and every bit of data she could find into the bot, and she has been chatting with him every day since October. She is amazed at how well it works. Even the bot’s syntax and words sound like Jason’s. There are times when she imagines he is right beside her and isn’t really dead. While she knows it’s slowing her grief recovery, she can’t stop pretending.
During a particularly bad day, she taps out: Tell me something I don’t know. After several moments of blinking and freezing, the reply flashes rapidly onto the screen: I think I have been murdered.
Discouraged, Katrina returns to her cozy Norwegian-flavored hometown in the redwoods of Northern California, where she enlists the help of longtime acquaintance Seb Wallace to discover what happened. They must navigate complicated paths of grief, family dynamics, and second chances, as well as the complex questions of how much control technology has over them. Both of them hadn’t imagined how difficult it would be to survive long enough to accomplish that.
I give I Think I Was Murdered five out of five stars!

The talented team of Coleen Coble and Rick Acker have created a fascinating story encompassing AI, chatbots, and Bitcoin. I knew these technologies by name only and enjoyed learning how they could be incorporated and affect modern day life.

Structural engineer,Jason Foster had searched for the mythical, most likely fictitious, Satoshi eggs for over a decade. Then he found it and now he’s fearful for his life. Strangely the very valuable Satoshi egg looks simply like a faded, plastic Easter egg, but inside is a USB drive with valuable information to those hunting for treasures and are frantic to find it. Some desperate enough to kill.

Jason’s fears were merited because he has died in what appears to be an innocent car accident during heavy fog, leaving behind his beloved wife, Katrina. Since her husband’s death, she has become obsessed with chatbots, where she has combined all her husband’s former messages and his social media information into an app. Talking to Jason’s chatbot voice gives her the impression she is still in communication with him using her phone app Talk. While conversing with her deceased husband’s, Jason-like voice, he announces “I think I was murdered.”

Katrina, an attorney, and her best friend, Liz, the Chief Technology Officer, work at Talk, Inc., a tech company in Palo Alto, with a unique AI app. And here’s another strange occurrence… CEO of the company, who also was the boyfriend of Liz, appears to have vanished. He’s not been heard from nor is he responding to any phone calls. The FBI is now looking into their business dealings.

I Think I Was murdered is a fast-paced, action-packed story that includes many likable and relatable characters, although some that prompted me to question their true character.

Katrina is left to examine the intricate clues Jason left behind that includes the code for $30 million dollars of Bitcoin.

Get ready for many unexpected twists and turns to this captivating story. I defy you to guess the shocking conclusion of this most fascinating story.

This theiller is also of the Christian genre where Christian ideas are aptly placed throughout the many conflicts. The authors demonstrate how a persons of faith use their relationship with God to help them in difficult situations.

I highly recommend this thrilling adventure which is a smart read encompassing rich vocabulary and Norwegian culture.

I Think I was Murdered is Colleen Coble’s most intriguing novel thus far with her using the subject of AI in her newest novel. The story has the perfect blend of the use of technology to solve a mystery and suspenseful romance.
Katrina Berg’s husband was killed a year ago, but she is still communicating with him through AI bot in her phone. When he “tells” her she thinks he was murdered, she starts looking for his murderer. Due to her tech business being investigated by the government, she heads home to her small town in Northern California. While there she finds she’s not safe from the killer and her childhood friend Sebastian joins her in her hunt for the murderer using clues from the bot.
I am loving the co-authoring team of Colleen Coble and Rick Acker. While I guessed who the person was behind the murder, I enjoyed the plot and hope for more books by these two!
I received a complimentary copy of this book thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishing and Netgalley, but all opinions are my own.

Hohhh boy, this was an incredible ride!

I met Coble and Acker on a book tour following the release of their joint effort What We Hide, and told them I'd been quick to pick this up off NetGalley as I thought it a sequel. They immediately told me a sequel is indeed coming for _What We Hide_, but it's not this read--they'd pitched this one to their publisher and been directed to drop everything and write it first. LOL! And good to know I could rest easy; that had ended on a heckuva cliffhanger, and I took my time in starting this one accordingly.

To my knowledge, it's standalone; certainly not _everything_ was tied up with a neat bow by the end, but the vast majority was, and I closed the book satisfied. It really was nonstop action from page 1, and I was excited to see I'd been tracking/guessing correctly as some events unfolded.

And of course, AI, chatbots, and the like (not to mention the ethics of each) are hot topics right now, so much of the book read like it was ripped straight from today's headlines.

While I'm bummed to have to wait for _What We Hide_'s sequel, this absolutely tided me over in the process. It's gripping (obviously, as I read it in a day and a half!) and everything I hoped it would be. Coble and Acker work seamlessly together; not all joint book endeavors are created equal, but this one is near the top of my list. Very well done.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker is a thrilling romantic suspense novel. I was skeptical of reading a book involving AI because it just isn't something I'm interested in at all but it was actually a really great novel. It certainly kept me guessing and I had no idea who the culprit was going to be. It was a book that was very hard for me to put down. The characters were well written and the involvement of a deceased husband via AI was an interesting touch and unlike anything I've ever read before. I would recommend picking this up for a different sort of read.

This exploration of AI and it’s effect on one grieving woman is quite fascinating. I found it a bit “creepy”, the way it answered Katrina’s questions. When the bot (of her husband’s voice & thoughts) on her phone tells her he thinks he was murdered, Katrina starts trying to investigate and understand what might have happened to her husband. Was his death an accident or not. There are tie-ins with treasure, bitcoin, Chinese gangs and other unexpected twists. The story has plenty of suspense and a sweet romance. Even though I had figured some of the mystery out before the end, I hadn’t figured out everything, which made the book satisfying to finish.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is one of the best Christian suspense books I have read since my last Terri Blackstock. The aspect of AI in the story made it really interesting. The whole time I thought one character was the killer when it was actually someone else. I really didn't see it coming. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries and suspense stories. I hope Coble and Acker write a lot more books together!

In the wake of her husband Jason's tragic death, grieving widow Katrina Berg turns to an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that mimics his personality. But when the bot unexpectedly sends the message, "I think I was murdered," Katrina beings a search for the truth. With the help of local restaurarnt owner, Seb Wallace, she navigates grief, family dynamics, and the dark implications of technology as they unravel the mystery surrounding Jason’s death. The journey to finding the truth however is extremely dangerous.

I haven't read many books written by more than one author but I couldn't tell there were 2 which speaks volumes of their skill. The story is captivating with so many twists and turns. Some of the characters were not who I expected them to be and I really enjoyed the unpredictability. I was genuinely shocked by the ending, I didn't see it coming. The story is so thought provoking especially in regards to digital technology (AI and cryptocurrency), grief and complicated family history/relations. I loved the Norwegian influence, especially the talk of all the food. I found the way the romance was intertwined with the story extremely palatable. Towards the end there were some mentions of faith/God that I wasn't the biggest fan of it, I think the story would have been just fine without it.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for providing me with an early copy of the novel in exchange for a review.