The Mirror Mind: A Hard SF Thriller About Memory, Murder, and the Drug That Killed the Self

By Carl Wang

What if the drug that made you perfect... erased who you were?

Detective Lena Kross takes N-Focus and solves the impossible murder in 72 hours. She also forgets her son's face.

When biotech startup Cortiva releases a drug that silences doubt, fear, and the Default Mode Network itself, Lena uses it to hunt a killer. For three days she is flawless. Fearless. Inhuman.

Then she crashes.

Twelve victims are hooked to IVs, their brains forced into a distributed supercomputer. The mastermind is dead. But the last dose remains.

Now Lena must choose: flush the drug and stay broken, distracted, human... or take it, solve every cold case, and remember how to be a mother.

But N-Focus doesn't give. It takes. And the price is the self.

Perfect for readers who love:
- Andy Weir-level hard science with real neuroscience
- Blake Crouch-style memory thrillers like Recursion
- Greg Egan substrate horror and biopunk conspiracies
- Female-led police procedurals with a sci-fi twist

Some problems deserve a distracted mind.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H86KQJG5
• ISBN13: 9798235845640
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Carl Wang
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"