When the Cassidy-Shaws’ self-driving vehicle is involved in a head-on collision, all five members of the family feel like they are to blame for the accident. As the story unfolds over a week in the Chesapeake Bay, one must wonder where the ethical and moral responsibilities lie in an increasingly AI world.

Just like Holsingers’ previous books, this story is compelling. I couldn’t put it down as I quickly came not only to care about each of the characters in the story, but I also wanted to know how/why each of them could be to blame for the accident. At times, the book felt similar to John Marrs’ book, The Passengers, because they both make the reader grapple with a reality that is in the not-so-distant future.

Admittedly, I don’t know the intricacies of AI technology, but as these authors use it as the backdrop of their books, I can’t help but worry about the future of humanity. I am increasingly worried about how we curtail some of these concerns and also confused as to why those in higher positions aren’t also heeding the warnings. While this book wrapped up with a satisfying conclusion, I am still left with so many unsettled thoughts regarding autonomous vehicles and potentially other catastrophic situations that AI may present in the future.

Bruce Holsinger always seems to tackle a contemporary challenge in his novels and Culpability does as well as it takes us into the world of AI and its ethics and legalities, a topic that seems relatively unexplored in fiction to date.
While driving to a lacrosse tournament in Delaware in their auto drive car, Noah and his family (wife, Lorelei, and kids Charlie, Alice and Izzy) are in a horrific car accident. Noah narrates the story, interspersed with a text chain on something called AviPal between Alice and "Blair". There are also excerpts from articles by Lorelei, generally on the morality of AI.
Their story takes place in the undetermined future "in this new American era of oligarchy, deregulation, and caprice, ' and raises the important question of who's responsible when AI makes a mistake.
You are certainly immersed into the world of AI in the novel (which is a good and bad thing) but my favorite aspect was around the family dynamics. I wasn't a big fan of the texting relationship between Alice and the bot, and thought that Alice's character wasn't as fully developed as it could have been with the novel's focus on Charlie.
Thanks to Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau for the opportunity to read Culpability. I received a complimentary copy of the book and opinions expressed are completely my own.

AI , artificial intelligence, and how we use it. Culpability makes you think about far reaching effects and ethics. Interesting book with great storyline. Well done.

A publicist for Spiegel and Grau highly recommended this book to me at a book event, so of course I had to do that! A book that really makes you think about technology and how it impacts our daily lives. What happens to a family involved in a tragic accident while in an autonomous vehicle is explored in this riveting novel that will keep you turning the pages as quickly as you can. Each family member feels culpable in some respects, but who is at fault? Highly recommend

I really wanted to enjoy this one, but unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me. Things picked up a bit around the 65% mark, and I was curious to see how a particular situation would unfold—but once that resolved, the story fell flat again. I can see how others might enjoy it, but it wasn’t the right fit for me. It leaned too technical and lacked the emotional depth I need to connect with the characters.

Thanks to @netgalley for sending me an advanced copy to read and review.

⚠️ Content notes: strong language throughout (including the use of God’s name), alcohol use, mentions of drug use, complex family dynamics, and one open-door scene between a married couple (brief and not graphic). Car accident resulting in deaths.

Realistic family drama, ethical dilemmas, questions, secrets and suspense -- all the elements that keep me reading! I even skipped dinner because I could not stop (made up later with some late night snacks). I was fully drawn into the story, told in first person by the father, who is a most sympathetic character. In it, his family survives a car accident that proves fatal for the occupants of the other car, and the automatic sensing technology of the family's car could be at fault. Or was it his teenaged son, the driver?

There is a bit of technical jargon concerning AI that I skimmed, but after finishing the book, I feel I owe it to myself to go back and absorb. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC e-copy. Highly recomended.

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🔥Culpability-Bruce Holsinger-Publishing by Spiegel & Gran on JULY 8th, 2025.

Summary
“When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, killing an elderly couple, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them all in the tragic accident. During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI. Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.”

This book was deadly. Starts slow at first, but snowballs quickly into event after event, moral dilemma after ethic dilemma. I love the family and the dynamics of the kids and the parents. This was my first book by Holsinger. Holsinger did a great job at looking at ethical situations in AI but also families and partners.

AI. Morals. Chatbots. Autonomous cars. Drones. Responsibility. Ethics. Family. Mess.

Major thanks to @netgalley and @spiegelandgrau

#culpability #netgalley #booksaredeadly #bookstagram #readmorebooks
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A timely, compelling read.

Holsinger has a knack for writing about timely topics in this case we explore the culpability of AI and its effects on one family but its broader than just that because this family could very well be any family. AI is here to stay but Holsinger uses storytelling to explore the future of it and its accountability in life and politics.

This book was a slow burn but after you get to the meat it’s impossible to put down. There is a bit too much going on and sometimes I craved refinement but overall it explored a fascinating and hot button topics.

Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel and Graunfor the arc of Culpability. I read it in two days! Bruce Holsinger has created a page turner with riveting characters that also makes the reader think deeply about our world today and the true cost and nature of the technological advances we see.every day. I know this book will stay with me for quite some time. I highly recommend!

A family of five is involved in an accident that kills an elderly couple in the other car. What makes this story unique is that they were driving an autonomous vehicle.. Does the 17 year old driver hold any responsibility? How about the father who was in the passenger seat but not paying attention? Each member of the family has a different perspective on what happened to cause the crash and who is responsible. The themes explored in this novel revolve around the ethics of Artificial Intelligence, the morals of this capability that is becoming more and more immersed in our lives. A very interesting read!

Every book I have read by Bruce Holsinger has made me think. This book is scary because it is about the use of artificial intelligence and who is responsible when something goes wrong. The book is about a. family who are on their way to a lacrosse game. Their automated vehicle gets in an accident and 2 people die. I learned a lot about AI, the algorithms that are put together by individuals, and the ethics involved. The family comes close to falling apart in the wake of the accident. There was a lot going on in this book in regards to the family, but I also learned a lot about AI, the algorithms that are put together by individuals, and the ethics involved. After reading this book, I feel like I have a much better understanding of AI. My rating is 4 stars, taking 1 star away for the parts of the book that read like a text book. This is not light reading but I am better for having read it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers, Spiegel & Grau for the advanced digital copy. This opinion is my own and not coerced in any way.

This is the first novel I've read which addresses the ethics of AI in a highly personal way. At the start of the book, a family in a self-driving car has a horrific accident with another car, and the people in the other car are killed while the family is injured but they will all recover. Is it the fault of the self-driving car? Or was something else going on? The wife/mother in the family is a professor who specializes in the ethics of AI, so that brings a whole other element into the story. When the family goes on vacation and stays in a house near tech mogul Daniel Monet, the impacts of AI become even more apparent. There's great characterization and this book really made me think. It's a great family story and it's really make me thinking about the role of AI in each of our lives.

Simply put, this was one of the best books I've read this year. Deftly merging the moral questions about current use of Artificial Intelligence with the tragedy and drama of an American family, the book successfully (in my eyes) was both an engaging read and a look at what the future undoubtedly will bring.

Enough said. I couldn't read this fast enough, and while much of the AI stuff went over my head, the author "dumbed it down" enough for a chucklehead like me to get the gist. Well done.

Will I read more from the author? Yes, without a doubt.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

I received a free DRC of this book through Netgalley. The topic of AI's responsibility versus human responsibility is a big one in current events and I think it will be even bigger in coming years. This book is a mixture of one family's life and aftermath in the lingering effects of a car accident. It exposes the hidden lives of it's participants and looks at the idea of culpability from several angles. It definitely made me think about the issue from several angles. It was written in an interesting way albeit with some scientific papers added here and there that I just skimmed as I wanted to get back to the family in the story.

Culpability is about a family who is driving in an AI equipped vehicle when it wrecks into another vehicle and kills the other passengers. Who is to blame, the AI who the humans thought they could trust, or the human at the wheel?
This was well written and kept my interest as we follow this family through the aftermath of the crash. I will forever look at AI and the consequences of its actions differently after reading this.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A 17 year old boy is "driving" a self-driving car with his parents and sisters as passengers. The car in involved in a fatal accident that kills two passengers in the other car. Ethics and AI are in question.

This book didn't strike a chord with me. I felt the development of the characters was lacking. It was an okay story, but a little too contrived for me. Perhaps so much happened during the course of what was a couple of weeks that it was just more than I found believable. A few timing flaws tripped me up too. The lack of communicating and secret keeping was odd and excessive to me. I can't say I hated the book, but I didn't love it either. It was a meh book for me. One I will probably quickly and easily forget I ever read. The AI bot interaction with Alice (eye roll). They build up to meloncholy with one of the daughters never really went anywhere. The whirlwind romance with the son was an interesting story line even if I found it unbelievable in the course of 3 days of knowing each other. The parent story line... ugh. Thanks for the ARC Netgalley and Spiegel & Grau.

Bruce Holsinger is meeting the moment with this thought-provoking scenario of a family involved in a fatal car crash in a car considered the safest in the world.

I always perk my ears up when I hear that Holsinger has written a new book since I read and enjoyed The Gifted School. He is intelligent and insightful in his writing and the same holds true for this selection.

When I think of AI fiction suspense, I always go to 2001: A Space Odyssey or some other horrorifying scenario of robots, etc taking over control from humans. These selections usually are frightening but feel far-retched at the same time. Here Holsinger is shining a light on the AI we have invited into our lives under the guise of convenience and safety. These AI are more subtle in how they have integrated into our everyday lives from the smart house controls we have monitoring the thermostat or pulling up a recipe in the kitchen with video tutorial to the autonomous driving in our cars. We even name our AIs and teach them how to interact with us so that they feel like friends or personal assistants who have a stake in our well being (Holsinger would argue they absolutely do not).

And this is the beauty of how Holsinger tells his tale. This is a novel of suspense. We do not know how the car crash is going to affect the family members exactly or who is culpable. We do get the impression from Holsinger that we should all take a beat to make a conscious choice of how we invite AI into our lives, homes, cars, transportation systems, governments and world. He isn't arguing that all AI is bad but he would like us to consider that AI doesn't like us, love us and doesn't really have skin in the game as to our survival or well being. As one of the family members suggests, AI will never sacrifice anything for you like your loved ones will.

Circling back to the previous fiction featuring AI as malevolent, this selection is even more bone chilling because Holsinger argues AI is what we make it and right now we are expecting it to act like a human with loyalty and emotions for us. If that is what we are focusing on, we have taken are eyes off the ball and may not like the world we see when we look up.

This is such a bingeable book! It captured my attention from the opening moments of the book and kept reeling me in every step of the way.

On the way to a lacrosse tournament, the Shaw family's autonomous minivan is involved in a fatal car collision. They must each come to terms with what has happened. In the aftermath, they take a trip to Chesapeake Bay, to get away and try to heal, but the repercussions follow them. I loved the use of some interesting plot devices in the story, and how individual family secrets play a big role in the decisions and choices that are made.

Things to consider |
•Feelings about AI
•Roles of parents
•Moral and ethical questions
•Consequences
•Realistic family drama

I think this is a book to watch for. It will make you question how you feel about AI and moral consequences, and what your culpability is in a given situation. This is so relevant in today's world. Don’t read the synopsis of the book, I feel like it gives too much away. Such a compelling story!

Highly recommend! Loved this one. 👍4.5/5 stars

[Thanks to the publisher, Spiegel & Grau @spiegelandgrau and @netgalley NetGalley for the advance electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.]

⚠️| Contains some instances of strong profanity, not frequent. Some mentions of drug use, and a very brief steamy scene, with mild details.

DNF - although I can see what other readers will come to love about this book, it did not work for me. I found the style a bit tedious but this is not to say that it was bad.