The Death I Gave Him

Liu (If Found, Return to Hell) recasts Hamlet as a high-tech thriller in this ingenious sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare’s classic. When Elsinore Labs’ Operating System AI, who prefers to be called Horatio, accesses data from Dr. Graham Lichfield’s lab, he’s shocked to find that Lichfield, the creator of neuromapper technology that preserves “your ongoing thoughts, your way of thinking, everything that makes up who you are” after death, is dead himself. Lichfield’s son Hayden, a researcher into longevity and the first person on the scene, utilizes the neuromapper to communicate with his late father—who discloses that he was murdered and asks his son to avenge him. Hayden’s suspicions initially focus on his uncle, Charles, but Liu manages to make the mystery suspenseful even for those who know the original story well. Nimble perspective shifts—Horatio, Hayden, and the Ophelia stand-in, Felicia Xia, daughter of the labs’ security head, all narrate—help keep readers guessing about what actually happened. This is a nail-biter. Penelope Burns/Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents (Sept.)