Behind Closed Screens: A Techno-legal Thriller
The house knew she was coming home before she did—and so did the man who built it to watch her.
Jenna Davis, a Seattle technology ethicist, returns from a conference to her award-winning smart home and slowly confirms that her husband Dean—a celebrated security consultant—has been logging, tracking, and manipulating her through the devices meant to serve her.
Rather than confront him, she assembles a covert alias and a network of allies to trace the surveillance back to a shadowy group called The Pantheon and its architect, Victor Ramsay.
The story then shifts from a domestic surveillance thriller into a meticulous legal-procedural as warrants, forensic imaging, and cryptographic evidence are assembled to hold the network accountable while protecting the victims’ privacy.
Tropes: domestic surveillance thriller, gaslighting, smart home as antagonist, coercive control, woman-turned-investigator, undercover alias / false identity, whistleblower, tech conspiracy, courtroom / legal procedural, found family, hidden network of predators
📖 Read the first chapter free
Story promises: standalone-resolved · third-limited POV · past tense (what this means)
Content notes: coercive control; intimate surveillance / stalking; psychological abuse and trauma; involuntary confinement; institutional abuse; threats; non-graphic violence (full index)
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