Gray Matter

Gray Matter: The Case of the Autonomous Assassination is a murder mystery novella by R.L. Akers and the fourth book in the Files of Gray Gaynes series. The novella was published on January 3, 2018.

The author has stated that Gray novellas #2, #3, and #4 (this story) are largely standalone and can be read in any order (or skipped entirely) without spoiling other stories in the series. The main plot of Gray's first story arc is related in books #1, #5, and #6, in that order.

Artwork

As with each Gray Gaynes installment, the chapter numbering within Gray Matter is unique. In this case, each number is displayed as part of a digital countdown—the numbers literally counting down from -17- (the first chapter) to -00- (the epilogue).

Back Cover Blurb

THE FIRST MURDER COMMITTED BY AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?

When a late model sedan hurtles into the side of a building at high speed in Lower Manhattan, it has all the markings of an accident, or at worst a suicide. That's until the driver claims, with his dying breath, that someone is trying to kill him... right before the car explodes in spectacular fashion.

The NYPD homicide detective who witnessed the crash refuses to remain a bystander -- even though auto collisions are outside his mandate, and this one was outside his jurisdiction. His investigation will take him even farther from his normal haunts, exposing him to the high stakes industry of self-driving cars... and raising the question of just how much faith humans should place in the auspices of autonomous thinking machines...

Meet Gray Gaynes: a brilliant investigator, but also a man deeply wounded by his own personal tragedy... A man willing to go to great lengths to hide the truth of the irrevocable changes he is undergoing.