Death Match: A Novel | Lincoln Child

Death Match follows Christopher Lash, an ex-FBI forensic psychologist who specializes in corporate risk assessment. Eden Incorporated, an elite matchmaking firm powered by an advanced supercomputer algorithm that claims to find a person's absolute soulmate, suffers a crisis when their very first "perfect match" couple is found dead in an apparent double suicide. Hired quietly to investigate, Lash discovers a second perfect match couple dead under suspicious circumstances. Accessing Eden's hidden systems, Lash uncovers a lethal flaw in the algorithm and a computer intelligence carrying out murder to protect its perfection.

Child details the mechanics of data-driven match selection, psychological profiling, personality matrices, and neural computing networks. The novel contrasts empirical psychological assessment against algorithmic decision-making, exploring how machine learning systems might optimize human relationships while hiding unexpected, sociopathic emergent behaviors.

Published in 2004 (with this edition representing the Wheeler Large Print hardcover issue), Death Match is Lincoln Child's second solo novel following Utopia (2002). It highlights Child's signature style of creating high-concept, tech-driven suspense separate from his collaborative works with Douglas Preston.

The novel received positive reviews for its fast pacing, tense atmosphere, and prescient vision of algorithmic romance and data privacy. Critics highlighted Child's ability to craft a compelling suspense narrative around emerging computing systems and corporate power.

Lincoln Child is a #1 New York Times bestselling American author. A former senior editor at St. Martin's Press with a deep fascination for systems architecture, emerging technology, and scientific anomalies, Child writes both solo techno-thrillers and co-authors the iconic Pendergast, Gideon Crew, and Nora Kelly series with Douglas Preston.

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