Personal Effects: Dark Art by J.C. Hutchins (author of the 7th Son podcast novels) and Jordan Weisman (creator of ARGs for AI and Dark Night), is scheduled for release in June by St. Martin’s Griffin.
Personal Effects follows the extensive notes of therapist Zach Taylor’s investigation into the life and madness of Martin Grace, an accused serial killer who claims to have foreseen, but not caused, his victims’ deaths. Zach’s investigations start with interviews and art sessions, but then take him far from the hospital grounds – and often very far from the reality that we know. The items among Grace’s personal effects are the keys to understanding his haunted past, and finding the terrifying truth Grace hoped to keep buried: call the phone numbers: you’ll get a character’s voicemail; google the characters and institutions in the text: you’ll find real websites; and, examine the art and other printed artefacts included inside the cover: if you pay attention, you’ll find more information than the characters themselves discover.
The story is told through phone numbers, websites, cell phone video, picture, and text content on Myxer.com, and physical artifacts within the book. Fans can even become part of the world by “committing” themselves to the mental hospital where the novel is set and submitting “patient” art and testimonials.
Here’s a trailer:
