The Mansion: A Novel

When a family moves into a remote high-tech mansion equipped with next-generation artificial intelligence that can control the house’s every function—a buried secret leads to terrifying and catastrophic consequences.Nellie is programmed to be the perfect digital assistant. But something sinister lurks in her source code—and now she’s the perfect killer. When Billy Stafford and his wife move into their house designed with every comfort in mind, he thinks it will be the perfect chance to work on their marriage and to restart his career. A brilliant computer engineer fallen on hard times, Billy’s been hired by his former business partner to test out Nellie: a cutting-edge artificial intelligence program hardwired into the house. All Billy has to do is fix a few bugs in the system, which sounds easy enough. But as winter settles in and Billy and his wife are left alone in the woods, a dark reality begins to emerge. Nellie’s problems are much worse than a few technology glitches. Infused with the sinister history of the mansion and her own creator’s sins, she has, in fact, become a killing machine. And the only way to escape is to give her what she wants… A gripping technothriller about AI gone rogue, The Mansion is “a thrilling story that combines modern technology with old fears” (Shelf Awareness).

Kirkus Reviews

"A richly composed, very scary thriller that would be welcome squeezed between Neal Stephenson and Chuck Wendig on your bookshelf. A ghost story that could be described as the Overlook Hotel with Alexa onboard but is, thankfully, frightening in its own right."

CrimeReads

"Ezekiel Boone, author of such creepy-crawly masterpieces as The Hatching and Skitter, returns with a new tale of horror and thrills."

The Real Book Spy

"Ezekiel Boone’s latest offering reads like a cross between Stephen King’s The Shining and one of John Connolly’s more recent Charlie Parker books...THE MANSION is eerie, thrilling, and impossible to put down."

Red Carpet Crash

"A great story with twists and turns you don’t see coming and a shocking ending you won’t see coming."

PureWow

"Boone’s (Zero Day) latest is like if The Shining were written in the time of Amazon Alexa."

Shelf Awareness

"The Mansion is a wonderful update of a classic model: people with secrets stuck in an old house with its own checkered past. Luckily, Boone knows the tropes of that old story well, and works to subvert them every chance he gets . . . The Mansion is a thrilling story that combines modern technology with old fears."

Book Riot

"Classic haunted house tale meets Black Mirror in this addictive read."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Mansion

About the Author

Ezekiel Boone lives in upstate New York with his wife and children. He is the internationally bestselling author of The Hatching, Skitter, and Zero Day.

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