Why You'll Love This
What if the implant keeping you emotionally stable was also the thing that could turn you into a killer?
- Great if you want: near-future cyberpunk noir with a sharp procedural edge
- The experience: fast-paced and twisty, with darkly comic beats throughout
- The writing: Bruno and Bakutis blend snappy dialogue with tech-forward world-building seamlessly
- Skip if: cyberpunk jargon and a crowded cast frustrate you early on
About This Book
In a near-future where cybernetic implants don't just augment the mind but can be weaponized against it, Mind Burn drops readers into a San Diego where emotions are firewalled and memories can be deleted on command. When rookie detective Cowan Soto investigates a mass shooting orchestrated by a hacker capable of puppeting people through their own neural implants, the case stops being just a crime and starts being an existential threat — to every connected person alive. Bruno and Bakutis build real tension around a genuinely unsettling premise: what happens to identity, guilt, and free will when your mind is no longer entirely your own?
What makes Mind Burn work as a reading experience is the balance it strikes between propulsive procedural plotting and sharp, sometimes darkly comic worldbuilding. The prose moves quickly without sacrificing texture, and the cast of misfit collaborators gives the investigation an unpredictable, almost screwball energy that offsets the heavier themes. It's the kind of science fiction that uses a grounded detective framework to smuggle in bigger questions — then has the decency to keep you entertained the whole way through.