The Reinvented Detective

By: Cat Rambo - editor, Jennifer Brozek - editor

Narrated by: Sierra Kline, Perry Daniels

What happens when time and technology change the definition of crime and punishment?

Science fiction often focuses on future technology without considering the society housing it. Social norms may change as tech changes—or not. What will criminals, investigators, judges, and juries look like in a complicated future of clones, uploaded intelligences, artificial brains, or body augmentation? What stories emerge when we acknowledge the possibilities of new laws, new police methods, and the birth of sentient Artificial Intelligence, as well as all the ways they can clash or combine?

The Reinvented Detective presents stories that complicate law and order as well as the concept of criminals, detectives, punishment, and justice for all by showing how shifting technology, the rise of sentient AIs, and shifting social attitudes may affect what is not only acceptable, but expected, within both real world and digital communities—and everything in-between. These stories reinvent detective and true crime tropes, recasting them for the 21st century, and above all, experimenting, astonishing, and entertaining.

©2023 Cat Rambo and Jennifer Brozek (P)2023 Tantor

Mind numbingly dull

Unfortunately, these weren’t so much stories with plots as they were ruminations from the POV of future investigators. Zero action, scarce dialogue, and mostly inner thoughts about stuff. The male narrator voices maybe a quarter of the roughly 20, mostly half hour, shorts. His voice gives a little bit of crusty detective noir energy. The female narrator, combined with the writing, put me to sleep.