The Perfect Stranger

I have come across the argument that people do not read science fiction as they cannot connect it to their own lives. Most sci fi fans know that even a book set in deep space or thousands of years in the future is often just using images of tomorrow to discuss the issues of today. However, if a reader needs a science fiction tale that feels more real, as if it could happen today then The Perfect Stranger by Brian Pinkerton may just be the book for them. Could the new hire be AI? They work exclusively from home and no one in the office has ever met them.... 

Linda works as the Head of PR for a large energy firm in America and her turnover for assistants has got worse since the pandemic and increase in home working. Staff have less connection to their place of work and will move on faster, therefore when Alison applies for the job and starts off on the ground running Linda thinks she has found a diamond in the rough, but diamonds can cut. Alison is not all that she seems. Alison wants Linda’s job and more, her ambition and skills seem almost unhuman. 

For many modern office workers, Linda’s plight is one that you can immediately understand. Stranger is a speculative fiction novel for today as it expands on a premise that has only recently arisen – home working. Couple this with the onset of AI and you have the kernel of a story, one that Pinkerton expands upon and fires off in amazing directions. 

The book starts off as a relaxed character piece. We are introduced to Linda, recently divorced, and working from home. We are introduced to relatable problems; dealing with work, an ex-husband etc. It is not until Alison is introduced that things start to go sideways in Linda’s life. I enjoyed the early parts of the book as Linda balances Alison’s ambition with an uneasy feeling. Can a new employee know so much and be so quick at working? 

So far, so relatable and the book would sneak into straight fiction as we are unsure if Alison is AI or not, but things turn. Linda’s life is twisted and turned by a hacker. Things start to go crazy. I found this part of the book surprising in the direction it took after the initial sedate pace, but I was there for it. Things only get more insane as the book progresses. It becomes a riot act of pace and surprises. It may be all too much for some readers, but I enjoy a book that goes all out. 

Most of the intellectual balance of the early part of the book is sacrificed for action and twists. Something once relatable, feels less so, but as speculative fiction, it is within the realms of possibility. Pinkerton has chosen to write a thriller and not just a treatise on AI in the workplace. This makes for a fun, action packed, and sometimes silly book, but one that most reader will enjoy the ride of.