Culpability

Author: Bruce Holsinger
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Spiegal & Grau, 2025
Pages: 380
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: When the Cassidy-Shaws' autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver's seat, with this father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident.

During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie's future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei's odd behavior tugs at Noah's suspicion that there is a darker truth behind the incident - suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet's teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.

Review: I wasn't sure what to make of this book. I found the characters unlikeable, but the themes were compelling. The plot moved slowly, but the ethical questions this novel raises are relevant.

The further I got into this novel, I started considering some of the author's name choices. They seemed obviously symbolic, Monet (and impressionist painter), Noah (of Noah's ark), Eurydice (of Greek mythology). Once I started down that rabbit hole, I asked chatgpt (iconic, I know), about the others. Lorelei and Alice were less obvious to me, but if you consider that Lorelei was a siren in Germanic folklore and Alice could be a reference to Alice in Wonderland where not everything is as it seems, Culpability becomes a layered novel with much to ponder and a new angle at every page turn. It quickly became more than a novel about a car crash and the increasing presence of AI in our daily lives.