Cardinal Machines

Graduation is closing in fast for Zoey Collins and she's facing tough choices when it comes to what to do next. Being the great niece of mother of A.I., Katherine Cardinal, doesn't mean she's rolling in green. But the Collins family is rife with penetration-testers and Private Eyes, a gene Zoey's inherited in spades.

Zoey’s trying to make it on her own when her great aunt dies, leaving her a prototype Cardinal Machine called Ocean. Both beautiful and buttoned-down, this machine ends up installed in Zoey’s now-empty front room. What does a girl do with a sweet custom android like Ocean? Why, what any girl would do. She takes him out to pick up bail jumpers that'd otherwise be a problem to apprehend. And he’s a natural! Because the Ocean models were designed for federal investigations and general law-enforcement.

However, when she takes on the case of a bail jumper who would be her biggest bank, a man who would have bagged Zoey 5000$, she finds out her skip is dead in a seaside park. The Sheriff's Department rules it an accident, but her Ocean’s assessment of the scene calls it murder….

If you liked 'Cinder -- The Lunar Chronicles', this is a series for you!