Past Crimes is a true crime lover’s wet dream coupled with a metaverse house of horrors. Jason Pinter has designed a dystopian world of the not-too-distant future that is unthinkable yet plausible, and makes today’s debates about technological ethics, privacy, and freedom seem cute and rudimentary by comparison.
It’s 2037 and most human interaction is now on Earth+, a virtual world filled with various experiences from going to school, to creating and experiencing art, to being able to witness and participate in simulations of the biggest crimes in history. Past Crimes is the leader in criminal entertainment and a multibillion-dollar business that even has a physical theme park dubbed the Disneyland of Death. And the most famous crime of them all has just happened – The Blight. A mass murder-suicide that resulted in the immolation and death of thousands. To Cassie West, The Blight is much more than a famous crime. Her departed husband has been convicted of being the mastermind, something that Cassie cannot reconcile with the man she knew and loved. Now a decade later, she is still trying to clear his name when new information comes to light that changes everything. But there are powerful forces at play that will do anything to silence Cassie and those she enlists for help….and they’ll be damned if they let the wife of the most notorious criminal in recent memory disrupt their plans to release the greatest crime simulation ever created.
There is plenty of propulsive action, blindsiding twists and innovative technology to enthrall any thriller or sci-fi fan for hours. However, that’s not what makes Past Crimes so compelling. It’s the combination of multiple topics – the metaverse, AI technology, true crime obsession, loss of civil liberties and due process, corporate greed, the destruction of the middle class, and more – that come together into one fascinating story of a potential future that should scare everyone for so many reasons. This novel makes you explore your own ethics and values, look at the type of the content you consume and its impact on society, question what you should be willing/not willing to trade off in the name of technological convenience, and think differently about what choices we need to make and policies we need to enact today to avoid creating a future that is lived in a corporate controlled and curated virtual environment versus a personal connection-driven humanity in the physical world.
One thing’s for sure. After reading Past Crimes, you won’t think about technology the same or take the future for granted ever again.
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