Thrill Switch

Thrill Switch is a metaverse centered cyberpunk mystery. Ada Byron is a detective with the Las Vegas Police Department. In the 21st century, Vegas has become the hub of a new type of sin, trading casinos for immense jack-in towers where virtual reality junkies create a world bounded only by imagination called the Holos. The key issue in this world is an upcoming VR crime bill, with the two Nevada senators in opposition. One wants a Holos with traceable currency and consequences for crime. The other one wants the current cyberlibertarian paradise, with all its grimy underbelly.

When a man turns up dead, bleeding out in his VR rig, detective Ada Byron gets the case. She’s an expert in the Specter slaughters, when one of the architects of the Holos killed thousands. Jazlin Switch was imprisoned and the lethal bugs patched, but if her methods can be duplicated, this means panic.

Byron chases the mystery and her own history with Jazlin Switch. She was one of the few survivors, her father one of the victims. As the case unfolds, it reveals a deadly conspiracy.

This is a fun little story, but it mostly feels dated without feeling charmingly retro. Byron is a luddite ingenue around the Holos, and much of the book feels like a Snow Crash retread without the weird Babylonian mindhacking.