Hiss Whistle Dead: A Bridge Chronicles Mystery

The Bridge Chronicles

By: Gary Ballard

Narrated by: Frances Leah King

Shel was an Excavator, a digital archaeologist sifting through the remnants of the recently deceased for buried treasure, hidden assets, long-lost relatives, and illicit funds. The last thing she ever thought she'd have to do was unearth the digital portrait of one of her favorite people in the world. Was it murder, suicide, or a horrible accident? This story set in the near future cyberpunk world of The Bridge Chronicles explores grief, trauma, gender identity, isolation, and sexuality, while satirizing AI, the blockchain, and techbro grifters.

When Shel ignored her mother's texts and calls, she never expected that the urgent news her mother had to share was the death of Shel's brother, Lillian. One of the lights of Shel's life, her younger brother Leland had always been outgoing, a free spirit in love with love. When Leland decided to present themself to the world as the gender neutral Lillian, it was as if a new beautiful being was emerging from under a dark cloud. Now Lillian was gone too young, the victim of a stroke. Unable to accept that their death was natural, Shel decides to focus her prodigious excavation skills on her brother's digital life. Was their death the result of some undiscovered health defect, or was he murdered?

Along the way, Shel learns things about her brother they had never shared, finding that the brother she thought she knew was not the whole picture. Hiss Whistle Dead is a complex character study, with unreliable narrators, and an exploration of digital life that echoes today's lightning fast culture and tomorrow's trends.

©2024 Gary Ballard (P)2025 Gary Ballard