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Driven
Not yet published
Expected 8 Sep 26A terrifying locked-room mystery from the author of Exiles and William—this time set in a cutting-edge autonomous car.
Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. Because, as it turns out, Jamie Newcross is also being haunted. Every house, condo, or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts—at the end of the bed or when pulling back the shower curtain. He hasn’t been able to sleep in weeks.
But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion—the world’s most advanced self-driving car—a sleek, private, contained vessel that is one-hundred percent safe. Or so he thought.
Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented—wait, is that blood?—and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out.
As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he's forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried. Driven is a taut, near-future fever-dream. Mason Coile delivers another one-sitting read that blends science fiction and psychological horror to explore loneliness, grief, and the things that make us human.
Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. Because, as it turns out, Jamie Newcross is also being haunted. Every house, condo, or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts—at the end of the bed or when pulling back the shower curtain. He hasn’t been able to sleep in weeks.
But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion—the world’s most advanced self-driving car—a sleek, private, contained vessel that is one-hundred percent safe. Or so he thought.
Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented—wait, is that blood?—and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out.
As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he's forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried. Driven is a taut, near-future fever-dream. Mason Coile delivers another one-sitting read that blends science fiction and psychological horror to explore loneliness, grief, and the things that make us human.
- GenresHorror
224 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 8, 2026
4 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
About the author
Mason Coile
3 books282 followersMason Coile is a pseudonym of Andrew Pyper, the award-winning author of ten novels, including The Demonologist, which won the International Thriller Writers Award, and Lost Girls, which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of the Year.
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February 6, 2026More excited after seeing this creepy ass cover!
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
*Huge thanks to Edelweiss & the publisher for a digital ARC of this one.*
‘I had found the dream I was meant to live, and it was the life I was already living. And then it was over.’
When’s a book not just a book?
It’s a question I’ve asked myself before, both internally and out loud to the wider world. It’s a question scholars have asked for hundreds of years. And it’s a question that’ll be pondered as long as we have books – in some form or another.
I imagine when Andrew wrote the short story and screenplay that became his first novel as Mason Coile, the wonderfully tech-savvy ‘William,’ that his intentions weren’t to write a trilogy that mapped out his final days metaphorically and with such aplomb.
No. I imagine back then, he was looking at writing what he called, ‘shorter, snappier thrillers.’
‘William’ kicked things off. And, I’ll admit with a bit of ‘for the record’ reader/reviewer/superfan pride, that after I posted my review of ‘William,’ not only did Andrew publicly confirm my theory of what that book was truly about, but we had several in depth conversations about that book itself.
While that book – on the surface at least – tells the story of a brilliant engineer with crippling agoraphobia who must confront his affliction when his AI creation goes off the walls, it was a metaphorical telling of Andrew’s world during the Covid-19 pandemic/lockdown.
Next up, we received the claustrophobic nightmare that was ‘Exiles.’ Again, when taken at face value, tells the story of astronauts sent to aide in the set up of the initial Mars colony, but when they arrive the three robots there are in the midst of a meltdown causing the base to be mostly destroyed. I’ve read the book three times now and had my suspicions this was another of Andrew’s metaphorical examinations. Diagnosed at this point with terminal cancer, the story maps out Andrew’s treatment journey, his body the base, the doctors and modalities the astronauts and robots, all ultimately failing to figure out a way to make things right and give us the happy ending we all so desperately hoped for.
Which brings us to his third novel as Mason Coile. ‘Driven.’ By all public accounts, this is the finale of the Mason Coile books. Andrew’s swan song with his pseudonym.
Yes, we got the final (with Andrew Pyper that is) Oracle audiobook, that release finished by the amazing Craig Davidson. And while I know of two other unpublished Pyper books – one stand alone and one co-written with Craig (though, I’m not sure if it’s under Craig’s name or as Nick Cutter) – those I’ve asked are unsure if they’ll ever see the light of publishing day.
I finished this one last night and I couldn’t sleep after. I made notes. I reread a few spots I’d marked. I wanted to email Andrew all my thoughts and questions and wanted confirmation about my theories.
If you’ve read any of my other reviews, understand this one’s going to take a different format. Let’s call it an examination, if you will. And hopefully I’ll do this book the justice it deserves in showcasing why you need to read it and why this three AI arc of books Andrew released as Mason are just as important as his arc of five books examining grief earlier in his career.
On the surface, ‘Driven’ tells the story of Jamie. Defeated and alone, he’s haunted. His wife and daughter have left him and his life around him has fallen apart. He’s moving from shit hole apartment to even shittier hole apartment, trying to outrun the terrifying ghoul that continuously pops up and chases him from each place. Home. That’s what he longs for but knows he can never find again. Not with his wife and daughter gone. Not with the ghoul always on his heels.
Hoping his haunting is purely quantified by four walls around him, he decides to buy a Lion, a fully autonomous car. He plans to live in the car, letting it drive him to wherever it wants to drive, so that he can get some sleep and hopefully some mileage between himself and the ghoul.
Of course, this is a horror novel, even with all the tech flashiness of the cover and hashtags and marketing that’ll accompany it, and things go sideways, leading us to several revelations. He buys the car from an odd, rich guy, one he knows to be untrustworthy. After waking, he discovers the hood of the car is dented and what appears to be blood on the windshield. From here it becomes a mix of what happened and what’s next. The pace increases, Jamie learns what happened and decides to make some of his own moves, in the hopes of making things from the past right. It turns into a surreal cyberpunk sleuth novel, where we get threats, actions, and an unlikely friendship.
But I can’t read this book purely on the surface. And I imagine if you know my love of Andrew’s work, and how much I cared for the man himself, you’ll know that I read this with my Pyper Superfan cap on. And for those of you who’ve been reading Andrew since his first collection in 1996 came out, you’ll understand just what Andrew was doing within this book.
You see, Andrew was saying goodbye to us all.
And he was saying goodbye to his family.
Within this book are Easter eggs to each of his previous books. Knowing how cerebral Andrew was with his meticulous plotting and connecting the dots, I’m confident this isn’t me searching for things that weren’t there. No, as the book went on, I found myself grinning frequently, when little details popped up.
I’m going to do my best to remain spoiler free here, but no promises.
The biggest connection throughout his books and this one, is the ghoul-type figure that haunts Jamie. A ghoul-type figure is mentioned in all but two of Andrew’s novels in his career, something that became a bit of a staple in his writing.
For his 1999 debut, we get a ‘Lost Girls’ connection with Jamie having been a lawyer before his life spiraled, harkening back to when Bartholomew Crane arrived on the literary scene. Of course, this wouldn’t be an Andrew book without it being set in Toronto, which ties into almost every of his other books. We see a connection to ‘The Damned’ with a scene between Jamie and his mom. We get noted ‘The Killing Circle’ and ‘The Guardians’ Easter eggs with some very specific locations. And of course we get the tie in of technology with ‘The Homecoming,’ ‘William,’ and ‘Exiles.’
But the book that we get the most connectivity with is ‘The Demonologist.’ We get Jamie going into a cellar, we get him longing to be reconnected with his daughter, we get a description of wall colors and most notably, we get what appears to be an ending that mirrors – though more defined – than what happens in ‘The Demonologist.’
Throughout this novel, Jamie is saying goodbye to his loved ones. And frankly, it was hard to read. Because I knew who was writing those words.
In my years of friendship with Andrew, nothing was more apparent than his love for his wife and kids. And within this book, that love is almost palpable on the pages. We read about the little moments between Jamie and his wife, Lauren, that reinforced his love and remained imbedded deep within his brain. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of those moments were from Andrew’s real life. We read about the small, tender moments with Jamie’s daughter, Olivia, and we’re reminded about how much Andrew loved being a father. And when the revelation of ‘why’ they’ve left arrives… it’s a hard section to get through.
If this is the finale of the Mason Coile AI-tech novels, Andrew has done a stellar job of showcasing the terror that can take place when AI begins to think for itself and stop listening to those who’ve created it, but also highlighting the dependency and intangible connections humans make with those devices. We’ve already started to see it in commercials, of people using smartphone AI options as though it was a real, living, breathing friend. And Andrew dissected the why and wrote three books about what happens when we allow it to get out of control.
At the end of the day, ‘Driven’ showcases everything that made Andrew’s books so special. It is the story of a man, trapped in a car, wondering what comes next. A story that mirrors Andrew at the end of his life. A man trapped in his body, losing control, desperately wanting to remain forever with his family. Desperately wanting to live a longer life at the place that means more to him than any other place ever could.
Home.
‘I had found the dream I was meant to live, and it was the life I was already living. And then it was over.’
When’s a book not just a book?
It’s a question I’ve asked myself before, both internally and out loud to the wider world. It’s a question scholars have asked for hundreds of years. And it’s a question that’ll be pondered as long as we have books – in some form or another.
I imagine when Andrew wrote the short story and screenplay that became his first novel as Mason Coile, the wonderfully tech-savvy ‘William,’ that his intentions weren’t to write a trilogy that mapped out his final days metaphorically and with such aplomb.
No. I imagine back then, he was looking at writing what he called, ‘shorter, snappier thrillers.’
‘William’ kicked things off. And, I’ll admit with a bit of ‘for the record’ reader/reviewer/superfan pride, that after I posted my review of ‘William,’ not only did Andrew publicly confirm my theory of what that book was truly about, but we had several in depth conversations about that book itself.
While that book – on the surface at least – tells the story of a brilliant engineer with crippling agoraphobia who must confront his affliction when his AI creation goes off the walls, it was a metaphorical telling of Andrew’s world during the Covid-19 pandemic/lockdown.
Next up, we received the claustrophobic nightmare that was ‘Exiles.’ Again, when taken at face value, tells the story of astronauts sent to aide in the set up of the initial Mars colony, but when they arrive the three robots there are in the midst of a meltdown causing the base to be mostly destroyed. I’ve read the book three times now and had my suspicions this was another of Andrew’s metaphorical examinations. Diagnosed at this point with terminal cancer, the story maps out Andrew’s treatment journey, his body the base, the doctors and modalities the astronauts and robots, all ultimately failing to figure out a way to make things right and give us the happy ending we all so desperately hoped for.
Which brings us to his third novel as Mason Coile. ‘Driven.’ By all public accounts, this is the finale of the Mason Coile books. Andrew’s swan song with his pseudonym.
Yes, we got the final (with Andrew Pyper that is) Oracle audiobook, that release finished by the amazing Craig Davidson. And while I know of two other unpublished Pyper books – one stand alone and one co-written with Craig (though, I’m not sure if it’s under Craig’s name or as Nick Cutter) – those I’ve asked are unsure if they’ll ever see the light of publishing day.
I finished this one last night and I couldn’t sleep after. I made notes. I reread a few spots I’d marked. I wanted to email Andrew all my thoughts and questions and wanted confirmation about my theories.
If you’ve read any of my other reviews, understand this one’s going to take a different format. Let’s call it an examination, if you will. And hopefully I’ll do this book the justice it deserves in showcasing why you need to read it and why this three AI arc of books Andrew released as Mason are just as important as his arc of five books examining grief earlier in his career.
On the surface, ‘Driven’ tells the story of Jamie. Defeated and alone, he’s haunted. His wife and daughter have left him and his life around him has fallen apart. He’s moving from shit hole apartment to even shittier hole apartment, trying to outrun the terrifying ghoul that continuously pops up and chases him from each place. Home. That’s what he longs for but knows he can never find again. Not with his wife and daughter gone. Not with the ghoul always on his heels.
Hoping his haunting is purely quantified by four walls around him, he decides to buy a Lion, a fully autonomous car. He plans to live in the car, letting it drive him to wherever it wants to drive, so that he can get some sleep and hopefully some mileage between himself and the ghoul.
Of course, this is a horror novel, even with all the tech flashiness of the cover and hashtags and marketing that’ll accompany it, and things go sideways, leading us to several revelations. He buys the car from an odd, rich guy, one he knows to be untrustworthy. After waking, he discovers the hood of the car is dented and what appears to be blood on the windshield. From here it becomes a mix of what happened and what’s next. The pace increases, Jamie learns what happened and decides to make some of his own moves, in the hopes of making things from the past right. It turns into a surreal cyberpunk sleuth novel, where we get threats, actions, and an unlikely friendship.
But I can’t read this book purely on the surface. And I imagine if you know my love of Andrew’s work, and how much I cared for the man himself, you’ll know that I read this with my Pyper Superfan cap on. And for those of you who’ve been reading Andrew since his first collection in 1996 came out, you’ll understand just what Andrew was doing within this book.
You see, Andrew was saying goodbye to us all.
And he was saying goodbye to his family.
Within this book are Easter eggs to each of his previous books. Knowing how cerebral Andrew was with his meticulous plotting and connecting the dots, I’m confident this isn’t me searching for things that weren’t there. No, as the book went on, I found myself grinning frequently, when little details popped up.
I’m going to do my best to remain spoiler free here, but no promises.
The biggest connection throughout his books and this one, is the ghoul-type figure that haunts Jamie. A ghoul-type figure is mentioned in all but two of Andrew’s novels in his career, something that became a bit of a staple in his writing.
For his 1999 debut, we get a ‘Lost Girls’ connection with Jamie having been a lawyer before his life spiraled, harkening back to when Bartholomew Crane arrived on the literary scene. Of course, this wouldn’t be an Andrew book without it being set in Toronto, which ties into almost every of his other books. We see a connection to ‘The Damned’ with a scene between Jamie and his mom. We get noted ‘The Killing Circle’ and ‘The Guardians’ Easter eggs with some very specific locations. And of course we get the tie in of technology with ‘The Homecoming,’ ‘William,’ and ‘Exiles.’
But the book that we get the most connectivity with is ‘The Demonologist.’ We get Jamie going into a cellar, we get him longing to be reconnected with his daughter, we get a description of wall colors and most notably, we get what appears to be an ending that mirrors – though more defined – than what happens in ‘The Demonologist.’
Throughout this novel, Jamie is saying goodbye to his loved ones. And frankly, it was hard to read. Because I knew who was writing those words.
In my years of friendship with Andrew, nothing was more apparent than his love for his wife and kids. And within this book, that love is almost palpable on the pages. We read about the little moments between Jamie and his wife, Lauren, that reinforced his love and remained imbedded deep within his brain. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of those moments were from Andrew’s real life. We read about the small, tender moments with Jamie’s daughter, Olivia, and we’re reminded about how much Andrew loved being a father. And when the revelation of ‘why’ they’ve left arrives… it’s a hard section to get through.
If this is the finale of the Mason Coile AI-tech novels, Andrew has done a stellar job of showcasing the terror that can take place when AI begins to think for itself and stop listening to those who’ve created it, but also highlighting the dependency and intangible connections humans make with those devices. We’ve already started to see it in commercials, of people using smartphone AI options as though it was a real, living, breathing friend. And Andrew dissected the why and wrote three books about what happens when we allow it to get out of control.
At the end of the day, ‘Driven’ showcases everything that made Andrew’s books so special. It is the story of a man, trapped in a car, wondering what comes next. A story that mirrors Andrew at the end of his life. A man trapped in his body, losing control, desperately wanting to remain forever with his family. Desperately wanting to live a longer life at the place that means more to him than any other place ever could.
Home.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
It is said that there are no new stories, but the wildly innovative Driven, might challenge that assumption.
Jamie Newcross is apartment hunting. He’s been left by his wife and little girl so doesn’t need much space, but no matter the size or location of a potential home, a troubling factor remains constant: something follows him. A figure might appear standing quietly behind the shower curtain, a face could press through the static of the television screen, or the baseball announcer's voice on the radio morphs into auditory horror. Jaime cannot escape an evil presence he doesn't understand and he's desperate. So in a bold move, Jamie assumes residence in a Lion 100, the first fully road-safe self-driving car.
The Lion makes Kit from Knight Rider look like a broke-ass moped. This beast of a smart car monitors your body temperature and vitals to determine your mood, knows your favorite scents, and is able to derive preferences Jaime didn’t even know he had. But can it keep out whatever is following Jamie?
There are gripping twists and turns, literally and figuratively in Driven, a book that only gets stronger as the plot unfurl like so many miles of highway. With no dialogue from the car (the Lion doesn’t speak), the author creates a powerful but haunting character out of Jaime’s pilot and side-kick. Grisly scenes abound, this is a horror, sci-fi, thriller, and it checks every genre box with gusto.
Maison Coile (pseudonym of Andrew Piper) died in 2025, and I thought his bone-chilling space horror, Exiles, was his final novel. What an awesome surprise as Driven comes out in Sept 2026, and is very much worth getting excited about. If Coile has any more books hidden in a drawer he could be a literary Tupac. This one is highly recommended to horror and sci-fi fans.
Thanks to Edelweiss Plus and G.P. Putnam's Sons for a review copy.
Jamie Newcross is apartment hunting. He’s been left by his wife and little girl so doesn’t need much space, but no matter the size or location of a potential home, a troubling factor remains constant: something follows him. A figure might appear standing quietly behind the shower curtain, a face could press through the static of the television screen, or the baseball announcer's voice on the radio morphs into auditory horror. Jaime cannot escape an evil presence he doesn't understand and he's desperate. So in a bold move, Jamie assumes residence in a Lion 100, the first fully road-safe self-driving car.
The Lion makes Kit from Knight Rider look like a broke-ass moped. This beast of a smart car monitors your body temperature and vitals to determine your mood, knows your favorite scents, and is able to derive preferences Jaime didn’t even know he had. But can it keep out whatever is following Jamie?
There are gripping twists and turns, literally and figuratively in Driven, a book that only gets stronger as the plot unfurl like so many miles of highway. With no dialogue from the car (the Lion doesn’t speak), the author creates a powerful but haunting character out of Jaime’s pilot and side-kick. Grisly scenes abound, this is a horror, sci-fi, thriller, and it checks every genre box with gusto.
Maison Coile (pseudonym of Andrew Piper) died in 2025, and I thought his bone-chilling space horror, Exiles, was his final novel. What an awesome surprise as Driven comes out in Sept 2026, and is very much worth getting excited about. If Coile has any more books hidden in a drawer he could be a literary Tupac. This one is highly recommended to horror and sci-fi fans.
Thanks to Edelweiss Plus and G.P. Putnam's Sons for a review copy.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Driven by Mason Coile is a fast, gripping thriller that had me hooked from the very first page. The story moves at an intense pace, blending suspense, technology, and psychological tension in a way that feels both fresh and unsettling. Every chapter ramps up the stakes, making it nearly impossible to put down.
What really stood out to me was the atmosphere—there’s a constant sense of unease that builds as the story unfolds. The concept is clever, the writing is sharp, and the twists kept me guessing the entire time. It’s the kind of book you finish in one sitting because you have to know what happens next.
If you enjoy smart, high-tension thrillers with a dark edge, this one absolutely delivers. 🚗💨 A wild, addictive ride from start to finish!
What really stood out to me was the atmosphere—there’s a constant sense of unease that builds as the story unfolds. The concept is clever, the writing is sharp, and the twists kept me guessing the entire time. It’s the kind of book you finish in one sitting because you have to know what happens next.
If you enjoy smart, high-tension thrillers with a dark edge, this one absolutely delivers. 🚗💨 A wild, addictive ride from start to finish!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews