Psychological horror meets cyber noir in this delicious one-sitting read—a haunted house story in which the haunting is by AI.

Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home lab, has achieved the breakthrough of his career—he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William.

No one knows about William. Henry’s agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on his project keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily.

When Lily’s coworkers show up, wanting to finally meet Henry and see the new house—the smartest of smart homes—Henry decides to introduce them to William, and things go from strange to much worse. Soon Henry and Lily discover the security upgrades intended to keep danger out of the house are even better at locking it in.

Mason Coile's profile page

Mason Coile is a pseudonym of Andrew Pyper, the award-winning author of ten novels, including The Demonologist, which won the International Thriller Writers Award, and Lost Girls, which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of the Year. Both Coile and Pyper live in Toronto.

"From its first page all the way to its jaw-dropping ending, William had me hooked. I mainlined this book in one sitting, loving the tragically endearing protagonist Coile had created while marveling at the whip-smart plotting." — Nick Cutter, author of The Troop and The Deep

"William is the perfect blend of sci-fi and horror. Coile locks you in the smart home of your nightmares, and inside is a gauntlet of thrills and surprises that'll have you looking over your shoulder till the very end. If reading with one hand over your mouth is your thing, this is the book for you." –Gus Moreno, author of This Thing Between Us

“A gripping page-turner that makes you think, William gets you by the throat and doesn't let go until it has spun you through some of your darkest fears. Mason Coile has written a modern-day Frankenstein for our digital age that grapples with the notion of consciousness and what makes a human.” — Araminta Hall, author of One of The Good Guys

“A deliciously terrifying book about creation and its false promise of control, William exposes the harrowing consequences of playing god. Coile demolishes the idea that our homes and identities are safe in a fully automated world. I dare you to read this in more than one sitting.” —Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty

"Dark, clever, and terrifying, I devoured Coile's novel. If you’re not afraid of AI now, you will be after William." —Robyn Harding, author of The Drowning Woman