Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

This week on Writer’s Voice, Bruce Holsinger tells us about his new novel Culpability, a story about a family shattered by a self-driving car accident — and about the ethical and emotional consequences of artificial intelligence.

Holsinger, whose earlier novel The Displacements explored climate catastrophe, turns his sharp eye to the ways technology mirrors human flaws, illuminating our collective complicity in shaping the systems that govern us.

“For all that we talk about the ethics of AI, the systems themselves are completely indifferent to our fates.” — Bruce Holsinger

Then Elizabeth George, the beloved creator of the Inspector Lynley series, talks about her new book A Slowly Dying Cause. It’s a masterful mystery that explores grief, obsession and moral reckoning. Set in Cornwall, it interlaces complex storylines around a suspicious death, a fractured family and the consequences of unresolved grief.

“The whole book is about grief — and letting go of grief.” — Elizabeth George

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Key Words: Bruce Holsinger, Elizabeth George, Culpability, A Slowly Dying Cause, AI ethics, mystery fiction, artificial intelligence novel, Inspector Lynley series 

You Might Also Like: Bruce Holsinger, THE DISPLACEMENTS, Elizabeth George, SOMETHING TO HIDE

Read The Transcript

The alarms being raised about the potentially catastrophic consequences of AI are getting louder — from massive job losses to the extinction of civilization, if not the human race itself. Yet President Trump is considering an executive order that would severely restrict or ban regulation of AI by the states, after a similar attempt by Congressional Republicans was defeated earlier in the year.

Holsinger’s novel Culpability begins with a devastating car crash involving a self-driving vehicle. From that ordinary tragedy emerges a meditation on moral agency, responsibility, and family. Holsinger’s narrator, Noah Shaw, centers story around that of his wife Lorelai, a MacArthur-winning philosopher and AI ethicist whose research into “ethical artificial minds” collides with her own family’s pain.

The novel’s title reflects a central question: who is responsible when AI goes awry? As AI systems begin to make decisions once reserved for humans, Holsinger asks whether these systems can truly learn ethics — or only replicate our own flaws and biases.

The story intertwines the philosophical with the intimate, exploring drone warfare, chatbots as companions, and the alien moral landscape of machine learning. Ultimately, Holsinger insists that moral responsibility around the use of AI lies with us, no matter how powerful artificial intelligence becomes. 

We last spoke with Bruce Holzinger in 2022 about his climate change themed novel, The Displacements. His new novel spurs the reader to consider the ethical and emotional consequences of the use of AI by the deeply flawed human beings who shape it. 

AI ethics • Family and responsibility • The trolley problem • Moral philosophy in fiction • Drone warfare and automation • Chatbots and loneliness • Parenthood and fear • The black box of AI • Alignment problem • Culpability and human agency

In A Slowly Dying Cause, Elizabeth George brings Inspector Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers back in a story that begins far from London — in the rugged landscapes of Cornwall. The novel intertwines a murder investigation with a study of the consequences of obsessive love and unresolved grief.

As George explains, the title refers to a line from King Lear and reflects the struggle to let go of grief’s “cause.” The book’s dual narrative follows Michael, a tin miner whose secrets surface after his death, and Lynley and Havers, whose loyalty and differences continue to define one of the most beloved partnerships in crime fiction.

George also shares her meticulous creative process: building layered characters, tracking storylines with color-coded notes, and revising through multiple drafts until the intricate web of clues and emotions fully coheres.

Inspector Lynley series • Class and gender in crime fiction • Grief and redemption • Setting as character • Character-driven mysteries • Writing process and structure • Humor in dark fiction • Environmental themes (Cornish mining and lithium extraction)

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