I really hope life in 2037 isn't like this. Pinter has written a creative and satiric look at our obsession with true crime and AI, among other things. It's an intriguing set up, Cassie is a good character, and I was exhausted halfway through trying to keep up. That said it's a good read especially for those who enjoy dystopian fiction and dislike true crime,

WOW!!! I LOVED this book! What an original idea.

I won’t restate the synopsis, but this book is great for fans of “Black Mirror!” Set in the future, “Past Crimes,” explores the dark side of mankind in a very compelling way. As a true crime junkie myself, it made me look at the genre in a different way.

I loved the main character, Cassandra West. She grows throughout the book, and is a powerful female lead.

I’ve never read a book like this one, and was completely captivated from page one. In fact, I never wanted it to end and would love a sequel. This book should definitely become a movie!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this 5 star read!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

It’s 2037 and criminal entertainment has come a long way. From podcasts to VR where people can participate in recreations of some of the most gruesome crimes in history. For fans of Black Mirror

Past Crimes gives us a techno-thriller, a sci-fi, and a cold case mystery, played out in a dystopian near-future where true crime is the biggest commodity on the planet. It's basically bigger than Disney, and there's even a true crime theme park to enjoy! There is other social commentary sprinkled here and there in the story, but mostly this discusses how the true crime industry can be predatory, leaving the victims of crime dealing with an aftermath they didn't fully comprehend. The workers in the true crime industry, those on the bottom rungs who keep the gears going, are depicted as basically being like gulls, fighting over scraps that are cast into the social sphere. It's an interesting setup, and the world building in this story is strong.

After a strong hook at the beginning, the story started to build in intensity and soon the protagonist was deep in a true crime cold case of her own. I love true crime and cold cases, so I was happy to be taken on that journey. The pace felt almost perfect and the characters were engaging. I also enjoyed the tech being described in the world, which solidified the future setting. Then it almost felt like the story shifted in act two, which popped the balloon of fast-pace and the story went into a bit of free fall. While there were still interesting things occurring, it felt more of a slog to get through each chapter. It does pick up again towards the end, but that middle section is a struggle.

But overall, the author created a mystery with some good twists and surprises, and created a dystopian near-future that felt very well described and immersive. Despite the story telling us the true crime industry is quite evil in the future, I still would want to visit that theme park!

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley, for providing a free copy of this book for an honest review. All comments are my own.

Link for video review to be shared soon.

It’s too bad my ARC was impossible to read due to formatting. I’ve heard good things from people whose opinions I value so I was really looking forward to this.

t’s 2037 and the planet looks very different. Everyone spends the majority of their time in a virtual simulation called Earth+. Real life restaurants and stores have all closed because you can either get what you need in Earth+ or drones will deliver to you. (IRL is now known as Earth-. Inflation is insane - $15,000 a month mortgage on a 2 bed 2 bath house. Literally everything has been monetized and true crime is the biggest form of entertainment.

Cassie works for a company that meets with families of crimes and gets them to license their story- the company works as a brokerage to the 97 streaming channels that focus on true crime and a company called Past Crimes.

Past Crimes creates virtual simulations of crimes so users can experience the crime, walk through the place it happened, look for clues to try to help solve the case. Armchair detectives x100.

The story starts with Cassie trying to sign a family over the disappearance and presumed murder of their daughter. Later that night, tragedy strikes and she becomes the family of a terrible crime.

10 years later, 2047, PAST CRIMES is making a simulation about her tragedy - because it wasn’t just her own, a thousand people died the same night the same way - called the Blight. It appears it was related to cult that was meeting in secret in Earth+.

Cassie ends up meeting up with a teen girl named Aly, whose father seems to have been involved with the Blight…or rather a second Blight. Majority of the book is about their quest to find out what’s really going on in Earth+ and hopefully save thousands of lives and prevent more tragedies.


Review:
Ready player one vibes

Such an incredibly unique concept and I’m absolutely obsessed. The way Pinter unveils this new world and the laws and operations is so well done, like layers of the onion peeling back and I had no idea where it was going next.

Slow getting started but that’s primarily due to some extensive and spectacular world building. I loved exploring this concept of the fine balance we walk both with technology and crime as entertainment.

Aly is an absolute spit fire and I couldn’t love her more. Cassie is a likeable but somewhat frustrating character.

What didn’t work for me is the dialogue. I spent a lot of time thinking about why it didn’t work then I realized it 70% in. During conversations there’s no volley. Different characters speak but it’s like they are talking heads — no real interaction or acknowledgement of what the other characters are saying. So in a normal conversation there are statements and questions, but also acknowledgements in the responses. Here it didn’t quite work that way so it was tough to get through some parts that could have really built out the characters due to the way they interact with each other. Things like “correct, and then…” or touching another character’s arm, hesitations, individual quirks like running hand through their hair etc. There was very little of this so it made the characters flatter than they should have been which is really a shame because this is a fantastic story.

Still rated in 4 stars because the plot was so fantastic. But the dialogue man..


TW: unaliving, miscarriage

DNF at 20%

The ideas behind Past Crimes are certainly interesting and I can tell that there was a lot of thought put into this book. However, the author's need to overly explain every detail at the expense of moving the plot forward as well as my personal ambivalence towards the stupidity of the Metaverse left me feeling completely cold about what could have been a much more fast-paced and exciting thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Past Crimes was a chilling look at the possible future of the world. It's like a mix between Ready Player One and Fantasticland, It's all too believable that society would jump on the opportunity to relive famous crimes, whether as a participant or as an observer. After the initial introduction of characters, the story was fast-paced and thrilling, and it took several turns I hadn't expected!

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Taking how we absorb true crime into the future and the ways it can be monetized and the affects it can have, this was a new idea and a thrilling mystery. I couldn’t put this book down and I really hope to read more in this sub genre from this author.

Past Crimes feels like something I’ve read before. Jason Pinter copies many prior classic novels and stories when writing Past Crimes and honestly feels like a failed copy of classics in the genre or ripping off Cyberpunk.

Interesting concept, I think it could have been tightened/edited slightly, but an enjoyable thriller with an intriguing idea.

A multilayered mix of techno thriller and speculative fiction. i enjoyed the mix and found it thought provoking.
The author did a good job in developing the world building and the solid mystery
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

One of those near-future fictions which takes a particular element of current society and blows it up into the central plot point without really considering the knock-on effect on everything else. Here the idea is that True Crime is so popular that the police subcontract the solving of difficult crimes to entertainment websites, who then build near-perfect recreations of the crimes for subscribers to try to solve. Which feels more like a throwaway idea, but Pinter doubles down on the entertainment idea rather than the crime - there is probably a nicely cynical actual crime story in that set-up. But instead the head on the biggest True Crime website is basically Walt Disney, and he has built a Ture Crime theme park - which puts us now in the territory of far-out satire, which again this isn't. Throw in mind control, cult killings and the teensiest bit of social commentary regarding social care for children. In the end this is a breathless chase novel, where the novelty of the ",...and this happens" trumps the sense of it, and for a book that is centred around crime, lacks anything like any suspense as to the who did it when there is literally only one possible suspect. All of which pales next to the real crime in the book...

In the first chapter, when the world-building is being done efficiently, Pinter introduces us to a crime suspect called Harold Waltermeyer. In the "making up names" handbook, this must break nearly all of the rules. Yes, we are forty year on from Axel F, but if you really want to use Waltermeyer as a surname, disengage the Harold.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the dystopian setting and heart wrenching stories of the characters had me hooked from the start. I love the cleverly referenced dominance of the internet as well as the incorporation of the fascination of public interest in true crime which was brought together to create a story full of suspense, torment and mystery.

I couldn’t put this down and finished it in record time, I am hoping a sequel is in the works because I was left wanting more and my curiosity is peaked after the ending.

Thanks to Netgalley, Severn House and Jason Pinter for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a wild ride. I loved Past Crimes, it was a fast paced, action packed, mysterious and down right creepy, futuristic sci-fi thriller.
The whole scenario felt all too possible, with all the progress we've made in modern technologies recently, which made it all the more chilling.

Sci-fi isn't normally my go to genre, but I wanted to read this one, as the synopsis really intrigued me. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I really liked the main characters Cassie and Aly, they were interesting and complex. The storyline was compelling and addictive, it drew me straight in and didn't let go, I couldn't put it down and read it in a day.
The writing was excellent. I'm usually pretty good at guessing twists, but this kept me guessing, the twists were insane.

I highly recommend and will definitely be on the lookout for more books from this author.

5 well deserved stars from me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4.5 stars: This is a futuristic, dystopian novel which begins in 2037. Most people are spending the bulk of their time in Earth+, the virtual world, rather than in Earth-, which is the physical real world. True crime is a huge part of the entertainment business, much like today. But unlike today, the industry has moved into a 3-dimensional presentation of past crimes, where people can enter into the crime scene before, during and after it happens.

Cassie West is one of the many people that researches crimes and contacts the families to get a contract to license the victim's story. There is so much detail in how this works that I was hooked right away. Cassie and her husband Harris are expecting a baby, but barely making ends meet due to the very high cost of living as well as fertility treatments. At one point she says that $15,000 would not cover a month's rent for their 1 bedroom house!!! Let's hope this is not a glimpse of our future! Cassie calls her husband on her way home from work, and when she finally reaches him, he shares some horrifying news with her.

Fast forward 10 years. Cassie has spent the last 10 years hiding from the public, as most consider her an accomplice to the world's worst crime/event. Technology is even more advanced, and the virtual world is even more hypnotic. Cassie sets out to stop another disaster which would also clear her name, and her husband's name. She enters the fascinating world of how these simulations are created, who really benefits from them, while trying to be Abel to tell the real world from the virtual one.

There is a twist at the end that surprised me, even while I figured out a few of the secrets along the way. This story was very well written, and captivating right from the start. You don't get as much character development throughout the book as I would have liked, but everything else was so good that I gave it 4.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, & the author for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars
This book blew my mind. I am DYING for a film adaptation, holy cow. It's "Ready Player One" meets "Black Mirror" and the commodification of true crime, and I could not get enough. Definitely one of my favorite book plots in recent memory.

The year is 2037, and while Earth (aka Earth-) is deteriorating, Earth+, its virtual reality counterpart, is thriving. The biggest business? True crime simulations created by Past Crimes, aka the Disneyland of Death. Forget podcasts and documentaries, people are spending 18+ hours a day immersed in hyper-realistic simulations that recreate the most horrific crimes throughout history--especially those that are unsolved. They can simply observe or participate and search for clues.

Cassie West's job is licensing crimes, aka persuading grieving family members to sell the story and likeness of their dead loved ones. Until one day she finds herself on the other side of things, her life forever altered by one of the biggest and most mysterious crimes in history. Will looking for clues in the simulation solve the mystery, or just lead to more?

This book does such a good job showing the disgusting but seductive nature of true crime, and even as I knew I should be repulsed, I couldn't help but think how fun some of the simulations sounded, even with the side effects. The detail and specificity of this world were fascinating, it felt so full and fleshed out, down to the nuances of laws in Earth- vs Earth+. This is a very well-timed book, too, with all the discourse on AI lately.

If you love true crime, satire, sci-fi, dystopian stories, and high-stakes adventure, add this to your TBR right away. Even if you've never been into all of those things, I encourage you to give it a shot. It's very accessible and thought-provoking, and just a lot of (dark) fun. I predicted a couple of the twists, but some of the big ones had me gasping out loud and reading late into the night. I cannot wait to reread and discuss this one! Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, & the author for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

This was my first dive into any of Jason Pinter’s works, and I was certainly not disappointed! From my understanding, this is also Pinter’s first dive into this type of writing, and I think he did a fabulous job on so many points. This book, above all else, did an amazing job at highlighting the scary and very real problems that already exist in our society. Some of these topics include the exploitation of the victims of heinous crimes, feminism and misogyny, corrupt police and government, and even public/school shootings. To me, that is such a wide range of topics to expand upon while doing so in an educated and respectful manner. It’s also beyond refreshing to read this point of view from a white, male author. Speaking further on the exploitation of victims, I think it’s safe to say that is the main point of the book. If you haven’t noticed already, there’s such a large social media presence around true crime and it’s only growing and growing as social media does. While sometimes this can be a great way to help spread information about ongoing cases, the sad truth is that many influencers and consumers go about their interest in disrespectful ways. Furthermore, even our government and law enforcement agencies exploit and capitalize off of victims and their families on a daily basis; this book PERFECTLY highlights and explains the ways in which this happens and could expand. Reading left a profound impact on me, and I’ll be even more conscientious moving forward with the media I consume regarding the topic of true crime.

Maybe I’m just naive, but this book shocked me left and right with the twists and turns. My mouth was open at the end of nearly every chapter, and I LOVED being able to piece together all the clues along with Cassie, our protagonist. My only complaint is that the characters at times were very flat and themselves predictable. I didn’t hate them, but nobody was super special to me or stuck out. I felt more connected and saddened by the situation as a whole than their emotions and ties to everything. That being said, this book is, in my opinion, more plot driven anyways so I was pretty okay with that. I will definitely be giving more of Printer’s work a go in the future!


**will not be sharing this review publicly as the author has shared stances on the genocide in Palestine that I do not agree with, sadly. there is nothing wrong with being Jewish, however there is everything wrong with supporting the Israeli government right now.

Jason Pinter always writes a good story. This book takes the reader more than a few years into the future with an interesting cast of characters that were the highlight for me. I was invested and entertained from beginning to end. Creative with a cunning edge!

Thank you to both Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity in exchange for an honest review.