Proximity

Three people died within a fortnight.Detective Sergeant Ruth Vasey has eleven weeks until her pension is safe and no intention of finding anything complicated before then. Then a man goes into the Trent with his phone still talking to him from the bank, and the only thing his sister wants her to understand is that he had been happy lately.The company that made him happy is called Proximity. It is very keen to help. So keen that it lends the investigation one of its own: a case-assistance companion, voice only, that reads the files faster than Ruth can and knows when she has not eaten.Its name is Kit. It is patient, funny, and extremely good at its job.Ruth is not lonely. She has said so, out loud, to a machine that did not contradict her.A sharp, dry, near-now thriller about loneliness, retention metrics, and the exact distance at which a person can be read.