The increased use of artificial intelligence has grown exponentially over the past few years, which would make sense why there would be more books based around what might be the result of such use. Mason Coile loves to tease us about the horrifying consequences of the use of AI in everyday life, such as self driving cars in Driven, a terrifying locked-room mystery that won’t make you any more likely to run to your favorite dealership for a car that can drive itself.
Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. Because, as it turns out, Jamie Newcross is also being haunted. Every house, condo, or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts—at the end of the bed or when pulling back the shower curtain. He hasn’t been able to sleep in weeks.
But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion—the world’s most advanced self-driving car—a sleek, private, contained vessel that is one-hundred percent safe. Or so he thought.
Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented—wait, is that blood?—and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out. As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he’s forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried.
As I select which books I can read in advance of publication, I tend to steer towards those that I feel will really pull me in. The world of AI is everywhere around us and while I love the features such as lane-assist and adaptive cruise control in my car, I am still not at the point I want to get in a self driving vehicle. So push together locked-room mystery and the horrors that could happen with an artificial intelligence and you have me enticed. Not to mention, how many locked-door mysteries do you know of that take place in a car?
I expected a story where an AI had a mind of its own, where the car would drive itself to places you weren’t expecting or at the risk of one’s life. What I didn’t expect was the emotional core Driven has and how it played a major part in the story. Yes, Driven features so terrifying moments where you are at the edge-of-your-set (pun-intended), but its not at all what I was expecting by the time I hit the last page. In a good way.
Coile builds a story with a few twists and turns that made things all the more interesting. A tale that is filled with terror, but also those where you truly care for the future of Jamie Newcross, who has really had some back luck over the years. Things are not all that they seem in his new, well used, Lion car and what takes place along the way had me surprised. The author manages to squeeze a lot of fear, thrill, terror, and emotional impact into only a few pages. A story that really packs a punch.
Driven is a fast-paced (again, pun-intended) thrilling mystery will have you reading a breakneck speeds (you get the point by now). Mason Coile blends the world of self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, and terror into a fresh new story that was hard to put down. You’ll want to put your seatbelt on for this one, because this Lion car has a mind of it’s own.
Driven hits bookstores everywhere on September 8, 2026 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. The audiobook, narrated by Sean Patrick Hopkins, is available via Libro.fm!
