Preview - The Passengers by John Marrs

The Passengers

John Marrs

Copyright 2019

337 Pages

This is book two in the “Dark Future” series, and let me tell you: the future of self‑driving cars has officially swerved off the highway, through a guardrail, and into a flaming ditch. The supposedly unhackable cars? Yeah, they’ve been hacked. And instead of taking their Passengers to Target or soccer practice, they’re chauffeuring them straight to their deaths. Very “Titanic,” except the iceberg is Wi‑Fi.

We get to watch this chaos unfold alongside Libby, who has the misfortune of being selected for this week’s Inquest Jury — basically a group of poor souls who sift through “evidence” from self‑driving car crashes to make sure the vehicles are still acting in the public’s best interest. Spoiler: they are not. And then there’s Jack, the MF—sorry, MP—running the show. The man unravels the second the hacking starts. I’m talking full meltdown. I disliked him immediately, and honestly, I’m proud of my instincts.

Today’s doomed Passengers include: a pregnant woman, a fabulously dramatic aging actress, a married couple with kids, and a man whose luck has clearly packed its bags and left. Really, Mr. Marrs? You couldn’t have tossed MP Jack into one of these death‑mobiles instead? Now that, I could have got behind.  (It’s fiction, I can say that).

And because no thriller is complete without a tangled web of connections, our girl Libby has ties to one of the Passengers. Of course she does. Fate loves drama.

Now, our Hacker. This man is giving full Incrediboy energy — you know, from The Incredibles? The “I’m brilliant and bitter and ready to ruin everyone’s day” vibe. He’s clearly too smart for his own good and nursing a grudge the size of a Tesla. We’re watching a revenge plot unfold with the precision of someone who alphabetizes their spice rack. The real question is: what did these Passengers do to earn their one‑way ticket to Doomsville?

So, I finish the opening section, feeling very smug about where this is headed… and then I look at the cover. “Who lives, who dies? You decide.”

Excuse me? Am I relieved they’re not all doomed? Or am I furious that I have to choose who survives like some dystopian game show host?

Either way, I’ll be reading the rest of this book through the cracks between my fingers.