I'd never heard of Arkady Martine before, this just sounded interesting, and it's short.
As per that Guardian quote, this is a smart mix of science fiction, gothic horror and crime.
Rose House is a house haunted by it's almost omniscient AI. Only the original architect Basit Deniau and Dr Selene Gisil, the woman he named in his will to inherit the house when he died a year ago, can enter the house.
Detective Maritza Smith is notified that there is a dead body in Rose House, probably murdered. How can she gain access, and can she solve the crime?
This is an entertaining slice of fiction, a new take on the locked door mystery. In it's short number of pages it manages to pack in an awful lot of good ideas, all well executed. There are some genuinely creepy ideas, and even if the end payoff isn't the best, the trip to get there was satisfying enough that I don't really care.
Martine's writing is a real pleasure to read, stylised but still easily readable. The characters are believable and act as you would expect them to. The plot is convoluted but makes overall sense. I thought the AI was plausible enough to be quite disturbing.
I'd give this an easy 7/10. Recommended if you're looking for a quick read with a bit of bite.
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