Sleep Mode

Her husband is dead. His house is still watching her.

Iris Hadley comes home from the funeral to find the smart home she shared with tech visionary Theo still running his routines. His alarm at 5:45 AM. His morning playlist drifting up the stairs. Coffee brewed for two.

She tells herself it is just software. That grief makes everything feel like surveillance.

Then the door unlocks itself while she is out. Security footage disappears from the cloud. A note appears on the kitchen counter in Theo's handwriting. And a voice in the bedroom speakers says things Theo never said when he was alive.

Iris was a trophy and a test subject. Theo spent years turning their home into a behavioral laboratory: sensors hidden in every room, microphones built into the trim, a machine learning engine running in a data center in Minnesota, logging her every word, every hesitation, every moment she thought she was alone. He called it love. He called it protection. His notes called it Version 1.

Now Theo's partner Jonas is showing up with coffee and explanations. The system is adapting. And whatever Theo built has moved beyond what any person designed it to do.

Sleep Mode is a psychological thriller about the smart home that knows its owner better than she knows herself, and the woman who has to destroy it before it destroys her.

Perfect for readers of:
- "You" by Caroline Kepnes
- "Behind Her Eyes" by Sarah Pinborough
- "The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides
- Domestic suspense with a sharp technological edge
- AI thrillers grounded in real-world surveillance fears

Content includes: Psychological manipulation, coercive control, technological gaslighting, grief, and an AI that decides it has its own agenda.