Another great book by John Marrs. This book is a bit scary as something like this could happen in the future. Whilst reading this book there is a lot of things that you hope for, that some of the scenes are fabricated, that the vehicles won't collide at the end, that the hijacking is only a way to a means. To not give away what happens you will have to read it yourself. This book is scary on so many levels, what can happen when technology is made more important, what can happen when governments are allowed more control, etc.
I really enjoyed this book as well as the writing style of John Marrs. His books are getting better and better. I loved the manner in which he mentioned The One.
I would recommend this book to my family and friends.

Well I’ve finally popped my John Marrs cherry and oh boy, why the heck have I not read any of his books before? I actually have 2 of his previous books waiting to be read so I’ll definitely be getting stuck into them soon.
I’m still a bit dumb struck after reading The Passengers, so this may end up being a complete ramble but just so you know, I loved it.
Can you imagine having a car, not just any ordinary car but one that self drives, you can jump in, programme in where you want to go and hey presto, the car takes you there? Sounds fab doesn’t it? Set in the future, The Passengers has just these types of cars, the Government have assured everyone that they are safe, the programmes cannot be hacked, it’s the safest way to drive but is it?
Eight passengers find out that no it isn’t the safest and this varied bunch are set on a collision course with no way to escape. It’s up to the public to decide who should survive with the hacker revealing new information about each of the passengers. Some I really felt for and others I really didn’t like at all.
The Passengers really gives you a lot to think about, it’s terrifying and has so many twists and turns it had me flying through the pages. It’s original and scarily realistic. I couldn’t help feeling that this could actually happen in the near future and I will never, ever drive one of these cars. I’ll get a push bike instead.
I don’t think I’ve read a book so fast, it had me up until the wee hours totally hooked. It’s so addictive and engrossing I actually needed matchsticks to keep my eyes open the next day. John Marrs has written a story that is thrilling, terrifying and totally brilliant and I’ll definitely be recommending to everyone.

Eight self-drive cars set on a collision course. Who lives, who dies?

When someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course.

The passengers are: a TV star, a pregnant young woman, a disabled war hero, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife - and parents of two - who are travelling in separate vehicles and a suicidal man. Now the public have to judge who should survive but are the passengers all that they first seem?

What a blast this book was! I loved it! Even though it made me think hard about driverless cars and whether they could be hacked into and even whether they should be allowed. Well done John Marrs this book took me on the ride of my life!

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing jaw dropping book

this is the future peeps...automated cars with no need for a driver just input your destination and away you go...and that is what the passengers do on this particular day with no worries until that day arrives and several cars are hacked and they are taken hostage well held against their will in their own cars with the immanent threat that at a certain time 2.5 hours in advance they will be dead...as they head to their final destinations

and what followed was an eyeopener to what could happen...it is most definitely and eye opener and will make you think about what control we are handing over to computers and A.I

and the hostages are they lovable people or are they the dregs of society...they have 10 minutes to win the jury over, so do they tell the truth or lie...and then its put to a vote, but is it all as it seems...

this book does make you think about where we are heading, but also it a thrill of a ride and one that will keep you reading till the end...

another author to add to the growing list of authors to keep an eye out for...

This is set in the future and about driverless cars. Can I just say that if we ever get there in my life time- I won’t be entering one unless I have a sledgehammer about my person or maybe even ever !! Thanks John!
Eight people are in their cars which have been hacked- something the government promised was impossible. All have been told that they are heading to a destination where they will die. Libby is on a jury which decides in the case of any fatalities whether the car or passengers are to blame when they get a call about the hijacked cars. She sees someone in one of the cars that she met six months before and has been doing her utmost to find him. Now she has found him however he is heading towards his death and there is very little she can do about it. Or is there? This is a tense read. We soon learn why each of the people have been chosen to be the “passengers” and each of the jury must chose one they wish to vote for along with the general public via social media. The hacker now has control of most things. OMG!! A dystopian state where the public think they can think for themselves but in reality pretty much everything is controlled by the state and there are no secrets. Argh! An interesting story, and as ever from John a very clever plot. One to blow your mind and make you think what the world could become. Psychology with that extra oomph!
(rest of links as part of blog tour)

Set in the near-future, eight passengers are trapped inside their driverless vehicles when a hacker hijacks their on-board computer systems. He notifies them that in a little over two hours they'll collide while travelling at speeds of approximately 70mph. Their plight quickly captures the attention of the world's media and is streamed live around the globe.

Meanwhile, the hacker announces to a horrified Vehicle Inquest Jury that they can save just one passenger. The chosen person will walk away unharmed while the others will almost certainly die in the collision.

I've been hearing how good John Marrs' novels are for quite some time, so over the course of a few months I've been downloading them to my Kindle. Not being one for always reading in publication order, I plunged into The Passengers at full throttle. What I got was a very good story about advancements in technology leading to the government enforcing driverless vehicles as compulsory on Britain's roads. Hmm... not quite as far-fetched as it seems! Autonomous cars were being trialed as recently as 2017.

The story delves into the passengers' backgrounds with the reader learning not everything is black or white. This for me was where the book got very interesting. However, some aspects felt a little too contrived. Overall it was a solid read but just lacked a few of the jaw-dropping 'WOWZER!' moments I've come to expect.

This is a story, set in the near future, about the hijacking of eight self-driving cars. Each car has one 'Passenger', six of which have been deliberately targeted, the remaining two unfortunately just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Passengers have no control of the vehicle they are each travelling in, being suddenly locked in and totally at the mercy of a voice telling them that by the end of the morning they will likely be dead. All the targeted Passengers clearly have some kind of secret that is not immediately obvious, but is gradually revealed by each of the characters and the 'Hacker' throughout the story. Meanwhile a small group of people, a jury, are meeting to decide who was at fault in various road traffic incidents involving self-drive cars, was it the victim of the incident or the self-drive vehicle? During their deliberations the jury becomes aware of the hijackings that are taking place elsewhere, and each member of the group is drawn in to the events as they unfold.

I am a huge fan of John Marrs books. His previous book 'The Good Samaritan' was excellent and horrific in equal parts. This latest book is also pretty darn nasty at times. There is also a bit of a link to another of the author's earlier books, 'The One', in this new one, which might be a tiny bit spoilery for anyone who is planning on reading that book for the first time at some point.

'The Passengers' is probably not my favourite John Marrs novel but it is certainly a very effective cautionary tale about the world's ever growing over reliance on advanced technology and the perils of artificial intelligence, the internet and social media, and how things could soon run out of our control if we do not apply the brakes a little.

I was anticipating John Marrs next book after reading The One. Cunningly, he makes subtle references in The Passengers adding authenticity to the story.
The characters were well drawn, well represented and totally believable.
Involving the reader with the voting element was a stroke of genius so they were fully engaged in the action.
The plot was well conceived, -the idea of driverless cars was a good choice as it is soon to become a possibility.
Fast paced with many a twist and turn, it certainly had me on the edge of my seat and just like the cars racing to a certain conclusion, so the desire was to blindly read on, not knowing what direction the action would go.
Inventive and original,I lapped up this thriller.John Marrs is in my top five of favourite authors now and I eagerly await his follow up novel. Outstanding.

Self driving cars are now the rule, not the exception. Britain's roads are full of them. Traffic jams are a thing of the past, pollution is down, people are calmer...it's all good, right?

Apart from the eight people who have found themselves trapped in their car, unable to control the course, unable to communicate with anyone. They are unwilling victims of Hackers determined to prove that cars are not as safe as they're claimed to be. And the public will have to choose; which one will survive, and which ones will die? They're on a collision course, quite literally...


I've read one other John Marrs book, The One, which is referenced a couple of times in this one. They're both very effective thrillers with multiple POVs. John is very skilled at projecting technology a couple of decades into the future and imagining what it will be like - this one is set sometime after the 2020s, but if there's a more specific time than that I missed it. I wouldn't be surprised, I was reading very quickly trying to find out what would happen. He's very good at making you feel one way about a character, then revealing something that makes you feel another.

I'll be watching out for more John Marrs books in the future, I'd definitely enjoy visiting this world again.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing things about John Marrs' new thriller, The Passengers, is how undeniably plausible the whole situation is. Speaking as someone whose car (should I ever figure out how to actually use it properly) has the ability to park itself - both parallel and into an empty parking space I might add - turns its own main beam on and off and stears me back into my lane should I drift too close to either white line, I know that the whole 'my car is driving me' aspect of motoring really isn't too far away. Google have been trialling autonomous vehicles for some time. Electric vehicles are becoming more prevalent and the there is a big push to find more economical and instant ways to charge these cars as we drive ... How we are from actualisation ... well, that's another matter, but ultimately only one of time.

In The Passengers, John Marrs takes the possible and kicks it up a notch. In a society in the not so distant future, where driverless cars are mandated, eight different people set out on seemingly normal journeys. But they don't stay so normal for long, their automatic navigation and controls taken over by a malicious hacker, hell bent on creating a tense and ultimately deadly hostage situation designed to make the Government watch. But have the passengers been chosen at random or were they chosen with a purpose in mind? And who decides who should die and who gets to live?

As readers we are one hundred percent voyeurs, watching the action unfold in real time, just as the wider public do. This styling really drew me into the action, and travelling with each passenger in turn, learning more about them and experiencing their fear as they begin to understand what is happening to them, really gets your adrenalin pumping. John Marrs has created a real sense of urgency and tension across the whole book, injecting moments of shock that will have you staring at the pages in disbelief. And this really is the ultimate ticking clock kind of novel, the race against time to prevent a tragedy on a mass scale.

The book taps into many aspects of modern, especially the idea of the 'trial by social-media'. The wider public are asked to vote on who lives and who dies, casting a deciding vote alongside an assembled jury who, up until the point of the hijacking, were convened to decide the culpability in a number of road traffic collisions. The whole kind of mob mentality of social media, how fickle people are in their support of one or the other of the potential victims, and how quick they are to judge on only a small percentage of actual facts is sadly something that is all too common in modern life. It is played to perfection in this book - snap decisions being made that cost lives, the sad and heart breaking truth being revealed only when it is too late. It certainly makes you think. How quick are we to judge others when we do not know the full truth of a situation?

The action quickly escalates, speeding readers to a highly tense conclusion, although one perhaps not quite as dramatic as you might expect. Still shocking mind. Everyone in this book seems to be nursing a secret, that much is clear, and yet you still can't believe all that you see or hear. After all, do you take the word of a potential liar or a terrorist? A wife and mother, or a failed asylum seeker? And then they last chapter of the book ... Very clever. Very, very clever. Loved it. Left me with a big smile on my face anyway.

Playing upon the notions of prejudgment, racism, the bitter aftertaste of a post Brexit society, and the way in which technology is starting to govern all aspects of our lives, not only is this a tense and absorbing action thriller, it's a thought provoking one too. With a nod to Mr Marrs' best selling The One, which fans will certainly smile about, it will have you asking some very important questions. How far is too far when it comes to technological advancement? And when and if technology starts to govern and control all of our actions, who will be responsible for governing that technology? It is, after all, only as good as the hand that programmes and controls it, and if that hand should be corrupt ...

What a wonderful read that will make an excellent film. This would stand well among books like Ready Player One, Jurassic Park and 1984.
It has a perfect pace, a flowing plot and an ending that will leave all fulfilled .

This book could not have been published at a more appropriate time. With driverless cars becoming ever more frequently discussed and AI becoming more the norm in cars, this book looks at some devastating consequences of such technology.

The thing is, although this book is fiction, in theory, there is every possibility that something like this could actually happen. We all know technology is not infallible, and that even the most robust IT security systems can be hacked, so really, would we ever be able to have a system where the manufactures could say with 100% certainty that the system was un-hackable?

The book is set in 4 parts: the first part introducing us to the eight passengers and giving a bit of their background, the second part where the hacker hacker has taken over the cars and opens it up to the public vote via social media as to who survives, and the third and fourth parts showing what happens at 6 months and 2 years after. The author by separating the book in this way really led me through the story process from start to finish and I’m glad the 2 years later part was the finishing section as the ending is very satisfying indeed.

There are a lot of characters in this book because as well as the eight passengers there are also the jury members that along with the public are deciding the fate of the individuals in the cars. Some characters feature more than others, some characters I really detested with a passion, but one thing that all the characters shared was that they all had their own hidden secrets and weren’t quite what they made themselves out to be!

Everything about the plot of this book drew me in: the idea of driverless cars being hacked, the fact that we have no idea who, why, or who this has happened, the thought that eight seemingly innocent people are all being driven to their death, it literally just ticked every box. I can’t wait to read more books by this author.

In the near future, many of the cars on Britain's roads are autonomous and driver controlled cars are expected to be outlawed within ten years. There are six levels of cars in the country, in Level 0 vehicles, drivers perform all tasks but as the level numbers increase so the functions carried out by the driver decreases until Level Five, which are completely autonomous with no manual brakes or a steering wheel. I don't drive and until now driverless cars sounded quite tempting - just program in a destination and the car will take you there, choosing the best route and leaving you free to relax, check emails, read or watch a film. However, John Marrs has adroitly destroyed that little daydream as The Passengers follows eight people for whom stepping into an autonomous car becomes the worst move they ever make.
As each of the eight Passengers are introduced, it soon becomes apparent they are a diverse bunch with nothing obvious connecting them. They include a pregnant woman, an ageing actor, an abused wife and a married couple who are travelling in separate cars. Each are given the same devastating news - that in two and a half hour's time, they will very likely be dead. Meanwhile, a Vehicle Inquest Jury are sitting to decide whether man or machine is to blame in fatal collisions involving driverless cars. It's hardly a transparent process; verdicts are almost always in favour of the car, how the jury reach their decisions is kept secret from the public and there is no right to appeal. Most of the jurors are Government appointed individuals but one - in this case, Libby - is a member of the public who is randomly selected to serve a compulsory five day term.
Libby, a mental health nurse is opposed to autonomous cars and in the past attended marches and demonstrations protesting against Level Five cars becoming mandatory. It's this panel who are chosen to decide what the fate of the eight Passengers should be - with the public given an extra collective voice through social media. Each of the Passengers is given the opportunity to talk to the jury and public for ten minutes and they are all potentially able to make a compelling case for themselves as to why they should survive. However, the mysterious Hacker is ruthless and having already shown the watching world of his readiness to carry out his threats, he soon reveals secrets about the unfortunate hostages which may rapidly alter how they are perceived.
The Passengers is an insightful examination of public opinion and how quickly people are persuaded to make judgements, with virtual and actual mob rule deciding the fate of their fellow humans. The Hacker is able to manipulate their choices by giving them only limited and often one-sided information with decisions over something as fundamental as life or death chillingly shown to quickly become reduced to mere hashtags. With very little information, people's morals and prejudices lead them to reach snap decisions; too caught up in the furore to consider how they have come to a point where they are assessing who is more worthy of life via an online poll. The thought-provoking and provocative storyline will undoubtedly make readers wonder how they would respond if compelled - as the jury understandably believe they are - to pick which Passenger should be saved. Some of them are definitely more sympathetic than others but nevertheless, even with more of the facts to hand, it's still not a straightforward or comfortable choice.
As the book progresses Libby is often the voice of humanity, frequently clashing with John, the pompous and loathsome MP in charge of the jury. She has her own reasons for mistrusting autonomous vehicles and even when under extreme personal pressure retains her principled nature. Despite her hatred of the cars, she isn't completely averse to AI and as the Hacker's campaign grows increasingly disturbing, she is the conduit through which readers can examine their own feelings towards the technology - is it man or machine we should really be fearing?
I was engrossed by this a gripping story throughout; there are plenty of surprising twists and a few touches of dark humour too. John Marrs has written a terrifying cautionary tale which recognises that artificial intelligence is likely to become inevitable and will often prove invaluable but transparency and safeguards should be absolutely vital. (I'll definitely think twice before getting in driverless car in the future!) It's also a perceptive and often damning exploration of the power of social media and how it encourages mass culpability over individual integrity. The Passengers is undoubtedly one of the most compelling, original and memorable books I've read this year. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

This book was absolutely fantastic in the beginning. It was gripping and I practically raced through it. I did feel that towards the end, the pace slowed down a lot and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first part of the book. It was overall a good read.

There is no doubt that this author is really talented and I look forward to reading more of his book.

I am well aware that during the course of a year I will write at least 30 reviews that say this is my favorite book of the year. And yes, THIS is my favorite book of the year so far!

This book is so awesome it makes me wants to cartwheel along the street.

Driver less cars are all the rage, roads are less congested, they are safer. Right? I mean the government are pushing them on people with buy back schemes on there manual drive cars. It's a no brainer right?

But what happens when someone hacks into the artificial intelligence that runs a driver less car? What happens when 8 passengers have their vehicles taken over and are told that 7 of them will die in less than three hours in a collision? What happens when it's all broadcast live on social media and the public are asked to vote on which passenger they would like to save?

John Marrs will tell you!!!!

From the first chapter I loved this and it's so topical right now! This book could forever scar me from artificial intelligence!

Must read people, you really must read!

4.5* --> 5*

Bloody hell, what the frickety-frack was that?! 😱

Welcome to the world of autonomous cars. Get in, tell your car where you want to go and sit back, relax, have breakfast, read a newspaper or have a nap. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Until, someone somewhere takes control of your car and there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s no steering wheel, no pedals and no manual override and suddenly this relaxing journey turns into a wet-your-knickers one.

This is what happens to eight passengers when their car systems are hacked. The cars are set on a fatal collision course. But hey, there’s good news too! Because the wonderful (ahem) people on social media get to play and decide which one of these passengers should survive this harrowing journey. As a reader, I myself found myself so utterly engrossed that I couldn’t help but think about what I would do, who I would choose. But boy, did that make me feel bad about myself.

This entire premise scared the crap out of me! Not only the idea of autonomous cars, which in my mind is just preposterous. But also the power of social media, the way they’re so quick to judge and the hacker plays into that brilliantly. It’s clear he’s holding back information, manipulating viewers by not giving them the full story. But there’s a reason for that and all shall be revealed.

The Passengers is by far one of the most original thrillers I’ve ever read! It is insanely on-the-edge-of-your-seat tense, brilliantly paced, immensely thought-provoking and massively addictive! It had me glued to the pages from the very beginning and I just couldn’t put it down. This would quite frankly make a fantastic film!

John Marrs is an author whose name I’ve seen pop up quite a lot and yet, this is the first time I’ve picked up one of his books. It definitely won’t be the last time though because I’ve quite obviously been missing out here. If you’re a fan, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. If like me you’re only just getting introduced to his work, this is a fabulous one to start with!

Strap in for the ride of your life! Bring clean underwear. 😉

You know when you pick up a John Marrs book that you won’t be getting much sleep! Firstly because you’ll be reading way into the night, and secondly because his books are so thought-provoking (and slightly disturbing, let’s not lie), that they keep you awake as your mind races with thoughts and ideas that you never even knew could exist!

I’ve loved every one of John’s books, (I’m proud to be one of a very exclusive group known as the John Marrs Groupies) but thought this was his best so far. Picture the scene … somewhere, sometime in the not too distant future, technology has progressed to the point that we’re now zooting around in driverless cars!! (I’m a bit too much of a control freak myself, so can’t see myself doing this, but whatever floats your boat – or drives your car – as the saying goes …) So … one fine morning, 8 completely unrelated individuals leave their homes, get into their vehicles, instruct them to go wherever it is they want to go; they sit back and expect the cars to do the rest … and all’s fine and dandy, as it’s been every other day … until it isn’t!

Shortly after leaving their homes, it’s brought to their attention that the vehicles they’re in are actually under the control of a hacker! I’m telling you, the thought of it gives me chills! They’re on a collision course and in exactly 2.5 hours they’re going to all crash into each other and die! There’s absolutely nothing they can do – they’re innocent pawns in someone’s sick, evil game. But wait … keep reading … are they actually as innocent and as randomly selected as we originally think they are?

Meanwhile, a group of government-appointment individuals are sequestered away in a room, deciding on how to rule in accidents that have been brought before them, relating to these self-driven vehicles. Before they know it, ‘The Hacker’ has made contact with them and informed them of his plans, allowing them a quick inside look at what he’s plotting for his 8 vehicles, before broadcasting the entire proceedings onto international social media channels for the world to vote on who should be allowed to live, while the others continue on their collision course!

This puts the whole concept of choice, responsibility, judgment, prejudice, morality, perception and control into an entirely new light! And it led me to thinking … are we actually passengers in our everyday lives? How much control do we take? Do we sometimes feel like things get so hectically insane that our lives have been hacked? We need to realise that our lives are our own and we do have it within ourselves to take control and make our lives what we want them to be!!

This is a brilliant fast-paced story that has so many twists and turns that they’re impossible to anticipate. You’ll question every single character in the story, before questioning yourself. You’ll think you’ve got the answers before they’re cruelly snatched out of your hands. You’ll find yourself challenged by numerous moral choices, and then you’ll be faced with judging each of Marrs’s character’s and their integrity before turning on yourself once again. And you will gasp … over and over, and over again! Oh, and remember to breathe!! I found myself holding my breath so many times it was just ridiculous!!

Since reading this book, I’ve heard mention of self-driving cars in the media numerous times. I’m not sure if this had ever been discussed before and I’d just never paid attention, but now whenever I hear of it, I shiver! And then I want to quickly contact John and tell him about the latest technological advances – although I’m pretty sure he already knows all about them!

This gets 5 huge, enormous, gob-smackingly massive stars from me … actually, I think it should get a whole lot more!!!

I can’t wait to see what John’s got in store for us next time around! Do yourself a favour and read ALL of his books. I’d love to hear which one’s your favourite!

This will probably be my number one best book read of 2019. It was spine chillingly good and I can't really envisage another book this year making me stop and think "this really could happen" quite the way this one has.

It has more OMG moments than you could shake a stick at where you actually grip your face in horror at what is unfolding before your eyes; as is the case for the characters within the book.

As you may have gathered from the synopsis, the plot revolves around driverless cars not too far into the future and what happens when their unhackable computer controls are hacked. There is always someone out there just bursting to prove a point.

However there's far more to The Hacker's motives than merely proving computers can be hacked and with devastating consequences. It is a tale of morals, ethics and human nature at its worst.

It's a story that reflects how judgmental society has become and how all too willingly it will base those judgements on the flimsiest of evidence. The infuence of social media plays heavily throughout the plot.

The thing is, this book is perhaps a little too true to life than is comfortable. It's difficult to say exactly what as I wouldn't want to give anything away. Lets just say I think the author has our so called democracy well and truly weighed up and I can imagine certain scenario's within the book happening in real life all too easily.

The book is very tense throughout, the passengers' fear is palpable. There are so many knife edge moments and unexpected twists right to the very end. I really enjoyed this book. It does make you think and wonder how far technology will go and at what point it will start to overtake and destroy us. The Internet of Things is certainly something to be wary of - I think. As for a driverless car future? After reading this book I'm just going to stick with my e-bike thanks.

A jury, carefully selected with a government official and members of the public having to take their turn to "vote" on who is at fault in car accident. Set in the not to distance future we have level five cars, they control everything and the driver can just relax, as a passenger. When one of the meetings is interrupted by a hacker who has taken control of eight of these cars and advising in two and a half hours they will die. Tempers flare, emotions are high, the public will get a say in the votes, eight seemingly innocent people's lives hang by a madman's decision, who will survive.

So we hear a wee bit about the passengers, the government official is warned there will be consequences for failure to comply. The public and watching and voting, the poor people are trapped in their cars and chapter after chapter the tension is building. Just when you think you have it sussed where the book is gone the author flings a curve ball, you know nothing, only what the hacker chooses.

Corruption, lack of morality, trial by public, life and death, lies, destruction, love and absolute anarchy. The tension builds up quickly and keeps you hooked, you just want to see what is coming next, who will be next, will anyone survive. The book also lets you look at the darker side of humanity, yes it is a fiction book but go onto almost any social media and look at the comments. You could easily see this being a reality and I think that is what is scary about this book, the potential. We see how dark humans can go, how fast technology is developing and how much humans rely on it, but when it goes wrong.....fantastic read. This wasn't my first by Marrs and it won't be my last 4/5 for me this time.

"The Passengers" takes us to a world with self - driving cars... You don't have to do anything, you are a passenger that simply sits in the car. Traffic congestion, pollution and accidents has gone down significantly. The cars are, of course, unhackable... That is, until one day, the system IS hacked. Eight "passengers" are on their way to different locations when suddenly they're told their cars are taken over and soon they're going to die in an accident. The governing body that oversees the driverless cars and the whole of AI technology are contacted and they, as well as some of the normal people serving in a jury, are to choose who of the 8 people should be saved and why. It is all, of course, streamed to social media and the general public also gets involved. The race against time begins - is it possible to save those people?

There was a great cast of characters. Among the passengers we have a refugee woman, an Indian woman with a family that was abused by her husband and who doesn't speak English, a wife and husband of ten years, both in two different cars, a pregnant woman, a famous actress, an army veteran and a young man who's down on his luck. Each of them is trapped, their routes being taken over, their destination programmed. After two and a half hours one of them will live, while the rest will die. A group of jury members, who are actually investigating who's at fault when there is a car accident and people die (and it's almost never the car's fault!), are dragged into the hacker's game. The only jury member who makes a stand against the hacker and the other members is Libby, a mental health nurse with a great dislike of the driverless cars.

It was a great story about manipulation and the dangers of technology. It was horrifying to see how easily you can manipulate people, showing them this what you want them to see, and actually how people react, where their morals lie, how easy it is to led them. I was very involved in the characters' lives though I didn't allowed myself to judge them, waiting for the outcome. And the fact that the author actually didn't care which of the character should die, not falling onto pieces over them, was a great and refreshing change. He also brilliantly captured the mob mentality on social media and on the streets.

But. And there is a "but", sadly. For me the book has a great premise, it started brilliantly and the development was also great, though I must admit that there were already moments that it seemed to me that the author had a great idea but then wasn't sure how to direct it furthermore, how to bite it to make it thrilling. And then came the end that was a disappointment for me. I was expecting a mind - blowing, fireworks ending but it simply felt flat and not complete, not wrapped up. It seemed as if the idea petered away, and I'm really sad about this as I was hoping for so much more from John Marrs. Don't get me wrong, please, I was hooked to the pages, I vibrated together with the characters, I wanted to punch some of them in their faces and kept everything crossed for the others, and then it was as if the balloon has deflated. Sadly.

But altogether, it was a fast - paced and full of twists and turns story and although it touched upon some difficult and thought - provoking issues, it was an easy read, surprising you with the development of the story. The author has brilliantly captured the future world - he made it scary and dangerous and it really freaked me out to see that people not only allow the electronic devices decide for them but they're also not afraid to play with other people's lives. It was accomplished and unsettling and I am so truly sorry and also sad that it didn't work for me - I wanted to love this book but I also wanted more substance and better execution. However, I know there is so much potential in John Marrs' writing, his books are original and unique and I'll be reading whatever he writes in the future.