Mind Burn

From USA Today bestselling author Rhett C. Bruno and T. E. Bakutis, Mind Burn is Ready Player One meets Minority Report, as Detective Soto hunts down a dangerous criminal capable of high-jacking and controlling cybernetic implants.

When your new employer tasks you with investigating the first successful mass shooting in twelve years, it’s understandable to be nervous.

Fortunately, detective-in-training Cowan Soto has a Personal Brain Assistant—a cybernetic implant—that allows him to firewall pesky emotions like worry and guilt and redact memories of bullet-riddled corpses.

Unfortunately, Cowan soon learns it was his suspect’s PBA which allowed a ruthless hacker to puppet her into a shooting rampage.

Aided by a veteran investigator, a brilliant CFO, a nihilistic cybercriminal, and the best waifu madam in Kearny Mesa, Cowan must wade through a gauntlet of homicidal professional gamers, the Russian mafia, and the board of OneWorld to bring this ruthless puppetmaster to justice.

All the while, the brand new detective is concealing the fact that he’s the exact type of criminal OneWorld has hired him to arrest: a loose circuit—a human unbound by behavioral modification protocols.

Rhett C. Bruno is a USA Today, Washington Post, and #1 Audible bestselling author, and has been nominated for a Nebula Award. He is the author of the Children of Titan Series, the Buried Goddess Saga, the Circuit Trilogy, The Roach, and the Audible Original The Luna Missile Crisis, among others. His story, Interview for the End of the World, was nominated for a 2019 Nebula Award. Rhett left his day job in 2018 and used his experience as both a traditionally and self-published author to found Aethon Books. Rhett also founded Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bridge, a newsletter service which holds a list of thirty thousand dedicated sci-fi and fantasy readers.

T. E. Bakutis is an author, game designer, and a lifelong fan of sci-fi, fantasy, and videogames, who now produces content for all three. His series of snarky sci-fi thrillers, The Insurgency Saga, received warm reviews in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, and his Final Fantasy meets X-Com series, The Hallowed War, enjoys a strong following. He’s also won several awards his for short fiction.