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Techno Thrillers
192 Plays26 days ago
Technology can be thrilling element in contemporary mysteries. In today's episode, Brook and Sarah discuss what makes a Techno Thriller and how technology can drive a story.
Discussed and mentioned
The Lost World (1912) Arthur Conan Doyle
Jurassic Park (1990) Michael Crichton
The Lost World (1995) Michael Crichton
Prey (2002) Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Evolution (2019) Daniel H. Wilson
The Andromeda Strain (1969) Michael Crichton
Micro (2011) Richard Preston and Michael Crichton
Chrysalis (2022) Lincoln Child
Origin (2017) Dan Brown
The Net (1995) film, directed by Irwin Winkler
Enemy of the State (1998) film, directed by Tony Scott
The Deepest Fake (2025) Daniel Kalla
Zero Day (2025) Netflix series, directed by Lesli Linka Glatter
Little Brother Novels (2008-2020) Corey Doctorow
Tracers in the Dark (2022) Andy Greenberg
Zero Days (2023) Ruth Ware
Sneakers (1992) film, directed by Phil Alden Robinson
For more information
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Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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Order Life or Delft by Brook and Sarah
For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/techno-thrillers/
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Transcript
Introduction to Techno Thrillers
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Brooke. Hi, Sarah. Can I just say that I am so happy that it's recording day. It's just always a pleasure to get together and talk about mystery and today specifically techno thrillers.
00:00:34
Speaker
Yeah, i'm I'm really looking forward to this conversation as well. Before we begin, Brooke, I just want to mention that our book Life or Delft is available for pre-order.
00:00:44
Speaker
It's a cozy mystery that we wrote over the last several months. It's so exciting, Sarah, to have our first collaboration available for pre-order. At this point, it's on Amazon and we'll link that in the show notes. But ah once it's released, it'll be available at all your favorite vendors. So um go out and check it out.
Technology's Role in Mystery Stories
00:01:07
Speaker
So when you're reading a mystery, Brooke, technology can set the reader in a specific time. Are the characters pulling a phone from their pocket? Are they picking up the receiver to make a call? Are they checking their day planner or are they looking something up in a Palm Pilot?
00:01:24
Speaker
As we have integrated technology into our lives, it can play a greater role in mystery. You'll never find the detective asking when a cell phone pinged a tower in a golden age mystery. But in modern techno thrillers, they often use technology to drive the story and it can become almost cautionary tale as the authors speculate how our use of technology might go wrong.
Techno Thrillers as Cautionary Tales
00:01:47
Speaker
These books often cross over into science fiction, incorporating elements of political and spy thrillers, and as we will, I'm sure, discuss, can get into great detail about how technology works.
00:02:00
Speaker
An early example of a techno thriller is The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, the same author of our beloved Sherlock Holmes. This was released in 1912.
00:02:12
Speaker
And, you know, there's a very detailed description of a journey in a South American jungle to verify claims of dinosaurs. And it features many of the characteristics that are common in this subgenre. So technical details, secrets, adventure.
00:02:26
Speaker
And The Lost World inspired Michael Crichton that to write
Exploring Michael Crichton's Impact
00:02:31
Speaker
Jurassic Park. And then he titled the sequel to that ah Jurassic Park, The Lost World. um And Crichton is ah arguably one of the most recognizable names in the techno thriller space. So I thought, Brooke, that we could start with him.
00:02:45
Speaker
That sounds great, Sarah. Thank you for that intro summary. So have you read any Michael Crichton books? I know that I read Jurassic Park.
00:02:56
Speaker
I read it after seeing the movie because I was, you know, at that age where you going to the movies a lot. um But here's the kicker for me, Sarah, like give me.
00:03:12
Speaker
a horror book, vampire goblins, you know, some creepy supernatural ghost, and I'm totally fine. But these plausible, scary technological advance stories scare me to death, and they will keep me up at night. So it's really difficult for me to read in this genre.
00:03:35
Speaker
On the one hand, I love it because I really... love technology and science and like the research part of it. But I think that's part of why it's so scary is because I realized that a lot of this is possible.
00:03:47
Speaker
That is so true. it is very possible. And it's interesting to look back at books that were written, say, in the early 2000s and see what of those predictions have have come true. Has it turned into this but almost nightmare scenario that um that the authors were predicting 25 years ago? And in some ways, the answer is yes, right? Absolutely.
00:04:15
Speaker
I think you've touched on ah on a ah great point. You know, a lot of mysteries that we read are not that plausible, right?
Modern Science in Techno Thrillers
00:04:21
Speaker
A caterer is not going to be encountering a body every time they are working a job.
00:04:27
Speaker
But being in an environment that is largely online, where there is a rogue person
00:04:36
Speaker
AI is not and outside the realms of possibility. Certainly, it feels like that 2025. in twenty twenty five Absolutely. Yeah. This week I read um a Michael Crichton book, Prey, which was ah written in 2002. And he has an amazing introduction.
00:04:56
Speaker
I listened to the audio book and he does the introduction himself. And it's fascinating and wonderful, but he's talking about um the fact that there are potential for these nanoparticles to become a rogue virus, which is the crux of the book Prey.
00:05:15
Speaker
And you you know I'm like feeling like the sweat break out on my forehead because um everyone, we lived through 2020, right? and And the experience of that pandemic really shaped the way that we look at these possibilities. And Hearing him speak about things that were potential in 2002 that I'm like, oh, that's like real science today in 2025 just gave the book like that much more um realism, I guess, when it's supposed to be science fiction.
00:05:50
Speaker
I read one of his books recently. Actually, no, it wasn't written by him. It was written by Daniel H. Wilson and it's Andromeda Evolution. And it is the it's touted as the sequel to Michael Crichton's book, The Andromeda Strain. And there's a lot of reference to what happened in that first book.
00:06:10
Speaker
um in this in this second one um and then I started but haven't finished reading micro which was published after Michael Crichton died but I think he started the manuscript and then um Richard Preston finished it uh and in that book it's again it's like nano um nanotechnology that, yeah, does not feel like it is that wild of a suggestion.
00:06:41
Speaker
No, and especially with the proliferation of AI that we've seen over the last two years, learning technologies, it is not difficult to imagine some of these rogue AI or rogue, um you know,
00:06:57
Speaker
computer particles, learning and then doing evil things.
Wearable Tech in Thrillers
00:07:05
Speaker
So Brooke, we've talked a little bit about techno thrillers featuring ai I recently read a book by Lincoln Child called Chrysalis, which is, ah I think it's part of a series that he writes, but I read it as a standalone and it it was fine.
00:07:22
Speaker
ah You didn't need to have read any of the previous books. um And his name may be familiar because he often co-writes with Douglas Preston, a series featuring Pendergrast.
00:07:36
Speaker
ah Anyway, ah this book, Chrysalis, features wearable technology. and it being manipulated to harm the wearers.
00:07:50
Speaker
And you know I can see in our near future that being something that is really pushed on us, shifting us from using our phones to interact with the internet and and AI and and using wearable technology. So it was, um you know when you talk about being a little bit scared of ah ah these books, it was in that sense,
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah. yeah just hearing you say that kind of made my pulse rate increase a little bit i and i think about our kids you know i think about what is the world going to be like when our kids are twenty thirty forty you know um But what gets me through when I have that little spike of worry and fear in these stories is that um we're reading crime fiction.
00:08:38
Speaker
And I always tell myself, you know, the good guys are going to win in the end.
Books that Revive Reading Passions
00:08:42
Speaker
There's going to be justice. There's going to be resolution. And usually there is. And I hope that's the case for ah real life as well, Sarah.
00:08:51
Speaker
I, a while ago, read Origin by Dan Brown, um and that was published in 2017. And I actually read it in 2021. ah Just speaking about the pandemic, I was unable to read very much during the pandemic. And um i can remember reading one day saying, okay, I need to get out of this slump.
00:09:15
Speaker
I looked on my library's app. I hadn't ever listened to an audio book, but I chose this one because it was by Dan Brown and I was familiar with, you know, The Da Vinci Code and other books that he'd written. So I thought, okay, if nothing else, this is going to be a thriller and it's just going to keep me entertained for a couple of hours, right?
00:09:32
Speaker
Um, and, uh, it's the book that got me out of my, my reading slump. So it was the first audio book that I listened to and it was, it got me back into, into reading after, um, after that first year of the pandemic.
00:09:48
Speaker
Uh, and it features an AI entity. Uh, and again, this was published in 2017. So he was, you know, very much, forecasting the way that this might that that this might evolve.
00:10:04
Speaker
And it was this personal personal assistant entity. And there's a tech bro involved. And it was... it It feels, um at the time, it didn't feel as aged.
00:10:18
Speaker
And sometimes these books can, right? Sometimes the technology that is described sounds very incredible for the time, but then you read it five years later and you're like, no, whatever, man, we've all got that.
00:10:35
Speaker
And it's not been that bad.
Techno Thrillers in Film
00:10:37
Speaker
um But I thought in 2021 when I it that, that um it it stood out.
00:10:47
Speaker
but You think about The Net by the film of Sandra Bullock that came out in 1995. So that was 30 years ago, just when we were ah being introduced to using the internet, right? And the premise was this woman um lives at home and does nothing except for lives her life online, which at the time seemed very novel, but fascinating.
00:11:11
Speaker
quite frankly, how most of us live our lives right now. I haven't watched it probably since 95 or 96, but I wonder if it would stand up. I thought of that movie too. um you know I saw that in the movie theater.
00:11:26
Speaker
And in 1995, I was in college and did not have the internet. There were a few computers in a specific lab that you could go to that sort of kind of had some dial up, but you know, there was nothing on the internet.
00:11:43
Speaker
So that movie felt extremely science fiction to the original audience, but it doesn't today. As you said, that's how most of us live our life.
00:11:54
Speaker
But I do think it would be worth a rewatch to see, if nothing else, just for the nostalgia. Remember when life used to be like that? and And just speaking about AI, um Daniel Calla, who was a former guest on our show, just released a book. I haven't read it yet, but it's called The Deepest Fake, and it's about AI. And I'm sure it would be a ah very interesting read. Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:12:25
Speaker
I think that there are some of these techno thrillers that are and some that aren't actually crime fiction because some of them are kind kind of suspenseful science fiction tales, aren't they? Like there's not a bad guy, there's not a villain trying to do something, but in many of them there are.
00:12:48
Speaker
One company steals another company's technology in order to do something malicious with it um and those kinds of crimes. And sometimes there are um There is actually a murder mystery within because maybe someone's stop trying to stop that malicious activity.
00:13:06
Speaker
ah But I think sometimes the larger crime that is woven into these stories are more like crimes against humanity. Doing something that is so unethical and short-sighted.
00:13:21
Speaker
I think that's ah that's a great observation, Brooke. And I think those kinds of stories ah are more the, I can think of examples that are more like political thrillers. um And an example of that is Enemy of the State, the 1998 film with Will Smith and ah Gene Hackman.
00:13:42
Speaker
And that is really about how the government can track people, which you know, is something that people are, for the most part, not very comfortable with.
Cybercrime in Modern Media
00:13:52
Speaker
um And ah another more recent example of that is Zero Day, which it was a series that was on Netflix earlier this year, starring Robert De Niro. And ah it involves more of a cyber crime kind of ah story.
00:14:10
Speaker
But again, is you know, government and government influence on the information that that people have. And i enjoyed I enjoyed watching that. um And Cory Doctorow has a series. It's the Little Brother novels. i've I've read one of the books set in that world that was lots of detail about cybercrime and hacking from the um hacker's point of view.
00:14:43
Speaker
ah in trying to defend against government surveillance. And I thought that that was um that was really interesting. Oh, those those are all great examples. And I'm glad you brought up Enemy of the State,
00:14:57
Speaker
It's a classic, and it's an example of what you mentioned at the beginning of a locked network. It's an example of the modern-day locked room mystery, where it's you know not picking locks or...
00:15:13
Speaker
ah trying to decide how someone shut themselves in and then the crime was committed, but um cracking surveillance systems and IP addresses and things like that. It's the same conundrum, but high tech.
00:15:29
Speaker
ah yeah That's a great description, Brooke. ah So I have a nonfiction example, and that is Tracers in the Dark by Andy Greenberg, who he is a reporter editor for Wired magazine. And he does a really great job of explaining technology in a way that the layperson can understand. So this book is around crime around cryptocurrency, which cryptocurrency may be something that people don't really understand very well. And he does, like i said, a very good job of explaining the way um that the criminal element
00:16:07
Speaker
ah takes advantage of blockchain and and and cryptocurrency. um And it does read a bit like a thriller, but it is nonfiction.
00:16:17
Speaker
I will say that there are some um pretty terrible things that people get up to. And he does doesn't get into a lot of detail, but he mentioned some of them. And he so you know, may not be for everybody. I think there's a warning before those chapters, but it, I enjoyed it for just feeling like i i was learning something.
00:16:39
Speaker
Oh, that's great. I love the true crime connection to any of our topics. um Well, you mentioned Zero Day, which is a film with Robert De Niro, but one of my recent techno thriller reads was Zero Days by Ruth Ware, and this came out in 2023. And it centers on a near future cybercrime scenario, which is these penetration testers.
00:17:07
Speaker
They're essentially um hackers, ethical hackers that are hired to break into physical and digital spaces to expose security flaws. And um it was, it was really good.
Highlighting Recent Techno Thrillers
00:17:20
Speaker
I, it was such a departure for Ruth Ware as well to be in this more techno thriller space, but it was really interesting and really great.
00:17:30
Speaker
Oh, I very much enjoyed that book when I read it. It's definitely a ah good example of ah a book in this space. I think one of the reasons I liked it was it really reminded me of one of my all-time favorite movies, which I never made the connection that we would really be considering a techno thriller in this, but it's Sneakers, which is a 1992 film. I'm really showing my age on this episode, you guys.
00:17:55
Speaker
It's a caper thriller with technology woven in. The star is Robert Redford, but it's an ensemble cast with Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, River Phoenix,
00:18:06
Speaker
And these are a group of security specialists that are also hired to um to penetrate into a company in order to steal a black box. But they realize that the job is much more involved and there's a big conspiracy going on. It's so good.
00:18:22
Speaker
Have you seen that one, Sarah? I have, Brooke, and I probably saw it close to when it came out in 1992 and really enjoyed it. And I wonder if it would stand up now because it like technology was involved and obviously it would have been technology of 19 1990s the I the themes um but the i think the themes Remain. and
Thematic Elements of Techno Thrillers
00:18:50
Speaker
And that's true. I actually think of a lot of the books in this genre, right?
00:18:54
Speaker
Whether it, you know, the technology may not be something that is current now, but the themes of that fear of whether it's government manipulation or companies manipulating us or just technology taking taking a wrong turn, ah those are persistent.
00:19:15
Speaker
Absolutely. And that's what draws us to these types of stories, isn't it? Like, we like to be a little bit scared, which is like kind of the name of the game in all of crime fiction and definitely ah solid marker in techno thrillers.
00:19:33
Speaker
Well, Brooke, it has been so fun to discuss techno thrillers with you. And, you know, maybe this is something that we will revisit in future as technology evolves.
00:19:46
Speaker
That's right. We'll be looking back to 2025 and laughing at the things that we thought were high tech, Sarah. But for today, thanks for joining us, listeners, on Clued in Mystery.
00:19:57
Speaker
I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers.
00:20:10
Speaker
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00:20:23
Speaker
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