Gnomon: A novel

In a near-future surveillance state where citizens are constantly observed and all actions, words, and thoughts are recorded by the System in the name of safety, suspected dissident Diana Hunter dies during a government interrogation—the first citizen killed in such circumstances. State inspector Mielikki Neith, a believer in the System, is assigned to investigate. Neith immerses herself in neural recordings of Hunter's interrogation and discovers not Hunter herself, but multiple characters within her psyche: a financier in Athens who encounters a mystical experience with a shark; an alchemist in ancient Carthage dealing with unexpected consequences of her invention; an Ethiopian painter and expat in London designing a controversial video game; and a sociopathic disembodied intelligence from the distant future. Embedded in these impossible lives is a code Neith must decipher to uncover what Hunter is hiding. As she works through the static between these stories, Neith glimpses the real Diana Hunter—and troublingly, herself. The consequences of her discovery will have far-reaching effects.