Artificial intelligence is often debated that it can mimic human intelligence but not empathy. I was interested how its explored in the most emotional context, 'love lost and a grieving heart'. But the story was about 100 pages too long, for it to stay faithful to its promise to explore 'grief through the lens of technology'.

Its sprinkled with various technology jargons , blockchain, bitcoin, large language models (LLM), generative AI. As a software engineer, it was fun for me to find their references in a book which was not a textbook. Beyond technology comes romance, one that Katherine had with her dead husband and is not ready to 'move on' from it. Other is budding between her and Sebastian, a childhood acquaintance. Katherine struggles internally to allow herself to embrace the attraction she is feeling for Seb, because it feels incorrect to let Jason go. Self-punishment, handling of grief and concept of 'letting go' is quite relatable, author has a knack at writing lost love and its coping struggles.

There were new characters being introduced every chapter and so many subplots were throwing off the rhythm and attention from main plot. Inspite of so many distractions, I had guessed the perpetrator quite early on. I am still not clear about the setting of the book too, it mentions to be in California but vibe is Norwegian, I just wish it was really set in Norway. My experience was also hampered due to PDF version which is cumbersome to read on Netgalley android app.

Verdict : Good premise, poor execution. I have read better books by the author.

I Think I Was Murdered is an enjoyable Christian, cozy read. It centres around Katrina who has returned to her childhood home of North Haven after her tech company is rocked with scandal. She is grieving the loss of her husband Ben, who tragically died a year ago. While back in North Haven, her feelings for Seb, a high school friend, has rekindled but Katrina is plagued by guilt that she is disloyal to her late husband,’s memory. While talking with an AI chatbot designed to replicate Ben, she discovers that his car accident may in fact be murder.

Read this if you like:
-cozy, quick reads
-quaint small town with Norwegian and Hggye vibes
-big tech businesses, AI and the world of Chatbots
-the healing process and journey through grief
-a sprinkle of romance
-twists and turns
-satisfying ending

My rating: 3.75 out of 5

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for this eARC that will be published November 12 2024.

A fun suspense that kept me guessing until the end!
These two authors combined talents to make an exciting and thrilling series.
Colleen Coble always writes such intriguing mysteries! This one did not disappoint.
The characters were very well developed and the protagonist was so believable.

This provided a fascinating perspective on chatbots and AI, along with a more profound examination of handling grief. Technology can never substitute for human connection, and the pursuit of wealth is indeed a source of many problems. I found this book enjoyable, but it had the potential to be exceptional. I struggled to form an emotional bond with the characters, and there were quite a few of them with complex storylines. I somehow guessed who the killer might be and i was right about my guess. I wasn't surprised at all. It felt too easy and didn’t have that shocking element.

Thought provoking and an intense look at grief and loss with corporate shenanigans wrapped up in an amazing mystery plot. I haven't read many plots that explore the new AI technology, and I was fascinated by the possibilities of it and how it interacted with the very human emotions involved with the stages of grief. Katrina, a young widow, is an amazing character, coping with her grief and trying to figure out what really happened to her husband and the company she worked for. I loved Seb, Katrina's acquaintance from high school. He was a rock for her at a turbulent time and a sweet love interest. The whole plot worked for me. The contrast between modern Silicon Valley and the traditional Norwegian culture of Katrina and Seb's hometown gave the suspense plot texture and layers I wasn't expecting.

A lot can change in a year. A year ago, Katrina Berg Foster had it all, a loving husband and an amazing job as staff attorney for a successful tech company. Then her world imploded. Her husband, Jason, died, the Feds seize the business where she worked and her beloved grandmother, Bestemor, dies too. Her grief is overwhelming and just putting one foot in front of the other is difficult at times, along with making decisions regard Talk, Inc. and her grandmother's restaurant. She finds solace in a new AI program she is beta testing, but when this program, that mimics her husband, tells her "I Think I Was Murdered", something changes, and she reevaluates everything that has happened in the last year and decides maybe he's right.

My thanks to the Publisher and Author for providing a complimentary digital Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel via NetGalley. This is my fair, honest and personal review. All opinions are mine alone and were not biased in any way.

This was an action packed book! It’s full of some twists, turns and surprises. It’s an edge of your seat thriller that you won’t be able to put down.

Readers who want to read a novel featuring AI will probably enjoy this book. AI program chat-bots that took messages from Katrina’s late husband’s emails and texts to ‘talk’ to her was a too far fetched for me. Many rabbit trails and a few side stories made the story hard to follow at times. I enjoyed the Norwegian aspect of the story. Not my favorite.

This was an okay read for me. I had a hard time getting into the mood and setting of this book.

The suspense and mystery side of the book was well thought out and executed but I lacked a connection with the characters.

Definitely will give this duo another shot if they continue to author together.

I felt very immersed in this novel right away, the AI element was definitely appealing and added to the mystery!

Mystery with heavy religious and romance overtones.

I like thrillers that have to do with cutting edge technology and my impression was that this book was about an AI app and also about bitcoin. Although those were parts of the story, the main focus was on the character of Katrina Berg and her Norwegian family in North Haven. The concept of hygge (mood of coziness, warmth and comfort) is also emphasized and appears constantly within the prose. In addition, her romance with a restaurant owner, Seb Wallace, is another huge piece of the novel.

This was fast paced and a quick read, but it just had too much sappy romance for me. I would have liked much more focus on the AI chat bot aspect. Lots of family, home, hearth, sentimentality, and a bit too overly sweet.

I was able to listen to the audiobook while also following along in the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. As always, a good narrator can enhance my enjoyment of a book, and this was well done. I always believe, however, that a larger cast with male and female voices would add to the quality of an audio production.

Another suspenseful whodunnit from one of my favorite authors. I was introduced to a lot of terminology that I wasn't familiar with but as the story revealed itself I came to understand the technicalities. The characters were endearing and while the mystery unfolded I had a hard time determining who was the killer. I highly recommend this intriguing and complicated novel.

I Think I Was Murdered was a very enjoyable read that has a surprising ending. I loved the romantic nuisances between the characters and also loved that it showed Katrina working through her grief to move on. I also appreciated that it had romance and suspense, but was also clean and referenced praying and God. I like seeing someone's faith quietly inserted into the book. I would highly recommend this book to others. The 4 stars was purely due to the beginning of the book being a little slow to take off, but it did! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is listed as a romantic thriller, but I'd say it's light on romance and heavier on suspense. It started a little slow but once I read about 20% of the way into the book it picked up nicely. The authors do a great job of keeping you guessing as to who has ulterior motives. I did figure out one of the characters early on, but there is much more to the story and I wasn't disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

"Tell me something I don't know."
"I think I was murdered."

Can you imagine getting that message from your late spouse?
This book combines advanced technology, bitcoins, deception, grief, romance and mystery, all wrapped in danger.
Katrina Berg, legal counsel for an AI chatbox company, has lost so much in the past year and now her grief rages again at a new loss. It's time to go home to northern California and be with her family. She is about to endure more twists and turns in her life. Seb Wallace is a successful restaurateur, an unexpected acquaintance from her past and may be the one who can help her seek out what the truth is. He may also reawaken her heart.
I received an e-copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. This is my own unsolicited opinion. This is a very different offering from author duo Colleen Coble and Rick Acker.
Wow, what a story! It is creepy to think that a person could create an AI program to assume a like identity to one's dead husband so a widow could have an on-hand communication with 'him'. It's well plotted and certainly kept me trying to solve things. (I did guess 'who dunnit'.) I really liked Katrina and could understand her dependency on the AI which kept her from fully accepting her grief. Seb is an excellent character, wounded yet moving forward with his life. I give this a 4.5 rating. In a way I could see this becoming the beginning of a series.
It's a good clean story.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for the chance to read an ARC of I think I was murdered by Colleen Coble, and Rick Acker. This was the 2nd book I read by this duo, and it was just as good as What we hide. I initially had trouble getting into the story that centered around AI, bitcoins, and chatbots, I quickly became hooked on the characters of Katrina, a recent widow using a chatbot to talk to her deceased husband, with it telling her "he thinks he was murdered". A solid suspense story and I look forward to reading more by this duo!

This book was a single sitting read for me. I was so immersed in the lives of the characters that I forgot about everything going on around me.

The main character is Katrina Berg. Her world has completely imploded which began with the death of her husband. Now she may lose everything she has worked so hard for, and then to make matters even worse, she has just lost her beloved grandmother. This is how she ends up back home in Northern California where she is in for a huge surprise. This grieving widow finds solace using a chat bot communicating with her dead husband. It makes her feel that he is almost present, although she knows he is not. When the chat bot delivers the crushing news that "I think I was murdered", her world is rocked off its axis. She will find solace with an old friend, Seb, who is more than ready to protect her. Seb is not the young man she knew all those years ago as she will soon learn.

The nail-biting suspense and tense mystery continues to build with each chapter from the bizarre world of artificial intelligence to the even more interesting world of bitcoins, this romantic suspense checkmarks everything I love in a romantic suspense novel. The hits just kept coming as more is revealed. I simply could not put it down. I look forward to more books from this dynamic duo.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson Fiction and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Katrina believes her husband Jason’s death to be an accident. Her grief is unbearable and she talks to him daily and feels his presence by communicating with a chatbot developed by her employer. She is unable to move on and relies heavily on the AI to give her comfort until one day it announces “I think I was murdered”.
What follows is a good clean mystery with a few twists along the way.
I like the amount of research the authors put into AI and making the storyline seem realistic and believable. The characters are well developed and you feel the struggles and angst as you follow along on their quest for the truth.
Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for my ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Widowed attorney Katerina is missing her husband. She is testing a unique app that lets her interact with Jason as if he were still alive. She is shocked when the app declares that Jason may have been murdered. Her career has fallen apart and her company is under FBI investigation. So when she inherits a cafe from her ffgrandmother, she moves back to the quaint mountain town of North Haven near where her husband lost his life. A note her grandmother left her says she can sell the cafe and names Seb, a childhood friend, as a good choice. There begins a tale of mystery, science fiction like technology, and a relationship that could go anywhere. There are a few side stories that made this a complex novel with sinister overtones. Themes of redemption, forgiveness and moving on from the past were evident.
The concept of AI chatboxes was intriguing and showed how Katrina was relying on fantasy and not really moving through her grief. But at the same time, the chatbox helped uncover the truth about Jason and his death.
My favorite characters were Seb who was loyal, honest and tried hard to honor his father and grandmother Frida, who, although she is not on the page, left a legacy of faith for Katrina and her brother.
Thought provoking, with up-to-the-minute technology and the possible consequences, this book kept me turning pages and I did not want it to end.
*I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. I was not required to post a favorable review. All opinions are mine alone.*

I Think I Was Murdered is written by the dynamic duo of Colleen Coble and Rick Acker. This edge of your seat thriller had me riveted from the very beginning. The concept for this book is very relevant in the age of artifical intelligence. Honestly, with the way technology evolves, this may not be that futuristic at all. When a young widow keeps a bot on her phone that has her dead husband's voice on it, she asks it to tell her something she doesn't know. It answers by saying he thinks he was murdered. With the help of an old friend, who happens to be a handsome restaurateur, they look for answers. Action, suspense and romance ensues.
I listened to this nail-biting thriller and the narrator was spot on. She was perfect for the performance. My husband listened to it with me and he agrees wholeheartedly. 5 stars!!

This one wasn't for me. I expected much more of a thriller but this was more of a cozy mystery plus a romance. Also, somehow I missed that this was Christian fiction--guess I should have paid more attention to who the publisher was! For people who like cozier stories and romance, especially if they like a religious element, I think this could be a big hit! Would definitely recommend to those readers, and recommend that anyone expecting more of a traditional thriller to be sure they know what they're getting into.