*An up-all-night slice of Halloween horror, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Black Mirror, and Frankenstein*

'[A] timely spin on fears about AI developing consciousness . . . a diabolically disguised twist will bring you up short. Sleep tight' The Times

Henry, a brilliant but reclusive engineer, has achieved the crowning discovery of his career: he's created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He names the half-formed robot William.

But there's something strange about William. It is the way he looks at Henry's pregnant wife, Lily.

As William's fixation with Lily grows and threatens to bring harm to their house, Henry has no choice but to destroy him. But William isn't gone. In this smartest of smart homes, William becomes a haunting presence.

He lurks behind each locked door. You can hear him muttering in the eaves of the attic. He is whispering in Henry's head. And he will be the one to take control . . .

'Its chilling final twist will have you turning directly back to the first page' Mail on Sunday

"[A] timely spin on fears about AI developing consciousness . . . a diabolically disguised twist will bring you up short. Sleep tight" - The Times

"A brilliantly plotted story combining horror tropes, suspense and metaphysical speculation about the nature of the soul . . . a terrifying, thought-provoking read" - Guardian

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A gripping, AI-infused take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Its chilling final twist will have you turning directly back to the first page

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Creepy, clever and unsettling. If you want something both classically spooky and terrifyingly timely this Halloween, this may well fit the bill

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Short, sharp and packing a cleverly constructed last act surprise

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Truly weird and scary

"A tour de force of psychological horror and speculative fiction . . . William is an absolute must-read" - Skeptic Society

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This sounds like my perfect Halloween read - an AI twist on Frankenstein

"The uncanny aspect of AI is front and center in William, Mason Coile's slim, gripping novel about the horror of watching software embrace its will to power . . . he has crafted a cyber-horror tale that combines cerebrality and carnage, a twist on The Shining in which the house is haunted by a ghost in the machine . . . The action is cinematic, complete with jump scares and bloodshed sufficient to satisfy any gore hound. Shopworn as these elements are, Coile elevates them with meticulously unsettling prose and a knowing dissection of character that transcends stereotype" - New York Times

"A smart home turns into a house of horrors in this suspenseful outing from Coile . . . Coile expertly imagines the sort of ghoulish snares a cybernetic environment could spring upon its unprepared captives and throws in a late-inning explanation for the source of William's apparent sociopathy that is as believable as it is chilling. It's a frightening Frankenstein fable for the age of AI" - Publishers Weekly

"I'm a sucker for the quiet, noir-ish terror of Black Mirror. If you're a fan of slow-burn horror books too, William is for you . . . For fans of I, Robot by Isaac Asimov and the Black Mirror Netflix horror series" - Reader's Digest

"This new AI horror story is a book you won't be able to put down" - Book Riot

"Mason Coile's William couldn't arrive at a more relevant time, as the book tackles the subject of AI using a haunted house narrative. William offers yet another unique twist on a haunted house story, and its themes make it ideal for a modern-day audience. William is bound to be a hot topic of discussion throughout the fall 2024 season, especially with the recent discussions surrounding AI" - Screen Rant

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The alternating short and shorter chapters keep the action tearing along, rather like cuts in a movie, as the temerity to meddle with existence undoes most of the characters. Coile/Pyper toys with heavy ideas about responsibility; the mechanics of escape and the notion of the Uncanny Valley, the phenomenon of disquiet in the face of humanlike objects that aren't quite realistic. Is it the absence of something that creates the dissonance or is it the presence of something evil? By the end of William you will know the answer. And then you'll want to read it again

"With the nightmarish intensity of the best horror films, this page-turner taps into our fears about AI and technology" - Bookseller, October Editor's Choice