The Man Who Wouldn’t Die

The pseudonymous Jewell takes an amusing swipe at the hardboiled detective novel and the world of high tech in his fun debut. PI William “Fitch” Fitzgerald works the mean but incredibly expensive streets of a surreal version of Silicon Valley, where people “Tweep” on “Twipper” and post on “Snipchap.” Tess Donogue, Fitch’s latest client, wants him to look into the death of her father, the tech giant known as Captain Don, who was working on the ultimate next best thing, Virtual Immortality. The Captain was developing a way to download someone’s consciousness into a computer, allowing a person to live on even after that person’s body had crashed. Tess believes he succeeded, since she’s getting Tweeps from her dad suggesting he was murdered. Fitch takes the case and is soon embroiled in a cutthroat world where everyone is out to nab the most important download in human history. Sharp, satirical observations on tech-dependent society and eccentrically comic characters keep the action moving. Jewell is off to a promising start. Agent: Laura Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Aug.)