I enjoyed listening to this audio book. I haven't had the opportunity to read or listen to a book by Colleen Coble before, and I'm glad netgalley gave me the opportunity to with this title. When I first came upon the audio book, one of the categories was religious so I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the book, as I don't really delve into religious fiction, but it turns out I didn't have to worry about that at all. The plot focused on the mystery at hand, but also delved into the relationship the characters had with one another - all of which felt realistic and genuine. The book also tackled the theme of grief in a realistic and genuine way.

Overall the audiobook was done very well. The transitions from one scene or character to the next were smooth, and the voice consistent. I am looking forward to exploring more titles by this author and would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this book.

Thank you to HarperCollins Christian Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook.

I liked the idea of the AI- talking to a loved one....
The mystery to me was slow paced and I found myself "fogging out"

Was not my favorite.... BUT I did listen to the whole thing. Will vote mid.

I thought the book was amazing, but the audio book took the story to another level. The voice acting really brought this chilling, mystery thriller to life.

I didn’t hate this book, but I didn’t love it either. I found the plot intriguing and the crime aspect of the story was somewhat interesting. The use of AI was unique to me and I found it pretty captivating to the story. However, I hated the romance aspect of this, I found it a bit cringy and to wrapped up in a pretty bow. I did enjoy the twist ending. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins publishing for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion.

thank you netgalley for the arc audiobook. i guess it’s my fault for not diving deep enough into the author before picking this one up but there was much more mention of god than i had expected or wanted from a Norwegian and tech based mystery. the plot fell short and the romance became annoying. but those things could all just be me. i stuck it out to the end so it was able to be finished, maybe reluctantly.

Coble and Acker have done it again! This is my second of their collaborations, and I look forward to more. I found the mystery well-researched and had a well-developed plot and characters. Sometimes in Christian fiction or cozy mysteries you do not always get this, as much as I'm a fan of those genres in general. I recommend this for those readers and anyone who wants an interesting techy-type murder mystery without gore and language, but one that is also not preachy.
The audio narrator also did a great job at tackling multiple characters and some accents. It definitely enhanced the story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for this ARL. All opinions are mine.

Just finished the audiobook of I Think I Was Murdered by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker. Katrina is a new widow after her husband died in a car accident. She is a high power laywer working for an AI company and uses her prototype chatbot to try and communicate with him. It has been helping her with her grief until the AI says…. I think I was murdered.

This is definitely a new age, sciency kind of book. I enjoyed the incorporation of Ai and the implications it can have. I was not in love with any of the characters in the book and sometimes it was hard to follow. But the ending save it for me and I ended up giving it 4 stars!

Colleen Coble writes so beautifully. The rich language used in the text and the descriptive passages paint clear visualizations for the reader. This intriguing story has elements of suspense/mystery, romance, Norwegian traditions and an underlying message of Faith. I very much enjoyed it.
The incorporation of an AI Chatbot and cryptocurrency is right on trend.
Narration of the audiobook is done by Karen Peakes. Her voice is pleasant, clear and well paced. Voice portrayals are consistent. Listening to the audiobook is more like listening to a story being told rather than simply read.
Thank You to NetGalley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing for the opportunity to listen to and thoroughly enjoy the audiobook version of this ARC.

In a world dominated by technology, where do we put our trust? With AI and the virtual popping up everywhere, we have ever-changing questions of right and wrong. Like, what harm could there be in communicating with a lost loved one?

There's enough suspense and who/what/why to engage the most discerning reader. Plus, just enough sweet connections with family and a budding romance to round out the story.

The narrators added to the story-world with smooth characterization and interesting voices that fit with the overall themes and message.

3.5 rounded to 4. This book had me on my toes! The author got me because I didn't guess the suspect. The romances were not very intriguing. The most interesting part of the book was the mystery. This was my first book by Colleen Coble and will check out her other books.

This ARC was given to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Colleen Coble, Rick Acker, and NetGalley for the ARC!

Man, this started off promising. The real-life treasure hunt that is the background. The uses of AI and the future it could bring (basically the plot of a much better episode of Black Mirror). But the knowledge of Bitcoin, AI, all of it really, was exceptionally shallow. The characters were sappy and this would have scored incredibly low on the Bechdel test. How can you be this worried about your livelihood, freedom, and life and talk almost exclusively about men? And the men! Toxic masculinity is so bad it feels almost like a parody of old romance novels. Two men physically fight over a woman they have literally just met. Men are constantly protecting and saving women. There was more, but that's enough. The over the top plots and predictable "twist" just made the whole thing unbearable.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Katrina's world comes crashing down all at once while she is still trying to move on from her husband's tragic death in a fiery car accident. Here boss from her successful career of creating an AI chatbot has just been indited for fraud and has disappeared, leaving his wife alone and pregnant to deal with the mess. Katrina's final straw is when she gets a phone call from home about the passing of her beloved grandmother. Katrina heads back home to try and deal with the pain and loss of her grandmother and the only thing that gets her through these days is the chatbot that has all of her late husband's emails and text conversations downloaded on it. This is the only connection she has left to Jason and when she texts him the chatbot texts her back as if Jason is still alive. As she starts to converse with the chatbot Jason, she starts to find things out about the company and Jason's death that she was not expecting. Enjoy!!

This is a whodonit mystery with an interesting AI twist. Katrina works for Talk Inc., a company that is developing an app where you can "talk" to your loved ones who have passed away using AI and data from the departed's phone. But then her company's CEO has gone on the run and the FBI is investigating the company.

Katrina doesn't know what to think with the new turn of events and goes to the Talk app, as she often does, for a conversation with her husband that passed away the year before in a car crash. When he tells he "I think I was murdered" Katrina is sent on a journey to find answers about her husband's death and mysteries with her company.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. There were some spots that dragged a bit for me, but I liked the characters and the story development. The AI and Bitcoin aspect of it was unique and made for an interesting twist. The narrator was enjoyable to listen to as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio for the audiobook for review.

I LOVED this book. The creative mix of AI and Bitcoin made the book feel relevant in today's society, with enough fanatical details to keep me lost in the wonderful world of fiction. I really enjoyed the spotlight on loss and handling grief, and also the growth in the main character throughout the story. She was someone you could root for, and be engaged with, while also seeing areas she could grow.

I loved the emotional maturity of the male main character. He handled his past and his family with the kind of incredible manliness that had me swooning.

I didn't really like the love triangle, especially the way it ended and the fact that it didn't seem better one way or the other. Some of the plot twists came so late in the novel that I felt it didn't really get time to be explored, but all in all, it was an incredible book with such a creative premise that I couldn't put it down.

I can't wait to read more from them.

This was a fun mind trip to take. To think how AI can and has taken over our lives is surreal. I find it rare for not only one, but two authors to be able to write characters that are not repetitive and annoying. The book started fast paced and kept me interested throughout. Even i didn't see the twist coming!

I do not enjoy cozy mysteries and this is exactly what it was. I really liked the synopsis, it sounded so unique & interesting, I have not read a book that dealt with any AI before, so I was super excited to see what was going to happen with that. However, this story dealt with so many other side stories & characters and didn’t focus on the “murder” that the chat bot brought up about the FMC’s husband who died.

I also listened to this audiobook instead of reading it myself. It took awhile for this to pick up, but even then it was still slow and wayyyy too long!! This was not for me, I really wish mysteries & cozy mysteries were categorized differently because they are not the same thing, at least not to me! This felt like a cozy crime mystery that my grandma would have enjoyed, it did not have enough going on to keep my attention.

I don't read much suspense, but I was intrigued by this book the moment I heard about it. With that title and the subject of Artificial Intelligence, I knew I wanted to read it, and I was happy when I saw the audiobook was available on NetGalley.

Katrina Foster lost her husband in a car accident about a year ago, but she stays busy as a lawyer with a Silicon Valley tech firm. Her company has developed an AI program in which you could load a loved one's text messages, pictures, email, and online history, and using that information a chatbot talks with you as though they were the deceased person, pulling from the "memories" you have programmed in. Katrina has been talking with Jason throughout the year since his death, feeling comforted by the responses of the bot that so mirror the man she loved.

Until one day when Katrina asks the chatbot a question and it replies: "I think I was murdered."

Katrina's life quickly spins out of control as she looks deeper into Jason's death. She retreats to her hometown and enlists the help of a friend from the past in solving the puzzles being thrown her way. Who wanted to kill Jason? Now that she's looking into his death, will they be coming after her next?

I really enjoyed the story. The characters were complex and layered. I did suspect who the bad guy was from the moment they walked onto the scene, though the authors did a great job throwing red herrings all over the place. My one complaint was that the characters seemed way too unconcerned about their safety, going into "hiding" that wasn't really hiding, turning down security from the FBI, and personally interacting with a foreign mob. They believed they could handle it all themselves. Even with that minor complaint, the story hummed along at an exciting pace but wasn't too intense for this non-suspense reader. I might even have to look into reading more in this genre!

I received my copy of the book from NetGalley. All thoughts in this review are my own.

Thank you Netgalley, HarpersCollins Publishing, and authors Colleen Coble and Rick Acker for a free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say I really enjoyed this one! This book had a little bit of everything - mystery, thrills, and romance. There were many twists and turns in this book, and I think the undertone of romance present told a really beautiful story. There was so much happening here, and I was initially intrigued by the AI element (FMC messages her dead husband through an AI bot which had his entire social media/cellphone uploaded into it so it really sounded like him- until one day the bot told FMC that he thinks he was murdered) but I stayed for the beautiful romance which so masterfully incorporated loss, grief, longing, childhood friendship, and this absolutely gripping mystery/thriller element.

I could honestly say I think this would make a pretty cool movie.

A cozy thriller mystery to finish out spooky season. This book was different than my normal reads and I was here for it. It was a fast-paced, gripping novel that blends mystery, suspense, and psychological intrigue. This is a story that grabs the reader’s attention from the very first page and doesn’t let go until the final, shocking twist.

Plot: Katrina is a grieving widow who worked as a lawyer for a tech company. The program that they created allows her to "talk" to her deceased husband. Upon conversing with him one day, her AI husband makes the statement "I think I was murdered." She then strives to follow clues that he left to figure out if he was telling the truth or not. She enlists the help of some friends from her old life after she moves back home to continue following the clues. Does she figure out what happened or is it a dead end?

The premise of the novel centers around a woman named Katrina, who is a grieving widow. She is a lawyer at a tech company who created an AI program that communicates like her husband. While communicating with him one day, he makes the statement "I think I was murdered." Katrina is determined to figure out what happened to her husband. This message comes in the wake of her grandmother passing away. So, she decides to move back home to grieve her grandmother and follows the clues that her husband left her.

The authors masterfully weave together suspense and tension throughout the novel. As Katrina begins to unravel the mystery of her husband's supposed death, she discovers that a few around her have their own secrets, and not all is as it seems. The story is peppered with unexpected twists, turning what might have been a typical "whodunit" into something more complex and psychological.

One of the book's strengths is its rich character development. Katrina is a relatable protagonist, and the way her grief is portrayed feels both believable and deeply engaging. The tension between her fragmented memories of her husband and the danger surrounding her heightens the emotional stakes. As she navigates her confusing reality, the reader is drawn into her search for truth, sympathy for her plight, and suspicion about those she interacts with.

While the book is undeniably entertaining, it did start out a little slow and took a minute to buildup; but once it did, it was easy to latch on what to finish the book. Also, there could have been 2 narrators in the story. I think the one narrator did a good job, but at times was hard to differentiate between who was speaking.

Overall, I Think I Was Murdered is a thrilling, page-turning mystery that will appeal to fans of psychological thrillers, suspense, and contemporary crime fiction. With its cleverly plotted twists, compelling characters, and tense atmosphere, it will keep readers guessing until the very end. For those looking for a fast-paced, engaging story with plenty of surprises along the way, this book is sure to deliver.

Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas Nelson, and Zondervan Fiction Audio for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Review posted on GoodReads on 11/11/24
Review posted to B & N on 11/11/24 as Drew B.
Review posted to Amazon on 11/13/24
Review posted to IG on 11/13/24, tagged NetGalley and publisher in post

I Think I Was Murdered is a thriller that centers around AI in a twisty but cozy way. Katrina finds comfort in consulting and speaking to an AI chatbot that emulates her husband who passed away in a car accident. Though she knows it isn’t actually her husband, she grows attached to this virtual version of her love. But when her chatbot husband insinuates that he was murdered instead of a simple accidental death, it is up to Katrina to seek out answers.

I loved the concept of this book. I think the use of AI is interesting and very relevant right now. Though, I don’t think the execution did this concept justice. A lot of this book felt like a hodge-podge of great ideas that never fully get explored. The story jumped around a lot and was a bit confusing and muddled at times. I think the AI concept could have stood alone without a bunch of subplots and hallmark-style relationship drama. I expected more of a techno-thriller or elements of sci-fi, but this ended up being more of a cozy thriller with a mix of romance and action. I was not a huge fan of the religious elements that were included since I don’t feel like it added anything to the story or plot.

Overall, not a bad read, but not what I expected. If you like more of a cozy thriller romance with a hint of action and drama, this one's for you. It’s a good comfort read and an interesting take on AI and how relationships can develop with it.

Thank you HarperCollins Christian Publishing and Thomas Nelson Fiction for providing this audiobook for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.