Override

In a world where feelings are data and emotions can be bought, hacked, or deleted, trust has become the most dangerous currency of all.
Tess Riley is a certified empathy engineer — a designer of customized emotional overlays for clients who want to feel more, or less, or something entirely synthetic. She's damn good at her job, even if it means rewriting a grieving widow's memories or installing a false sense of love into a politician's mind. For Tess, it's all just code.
Until it isn't.
When a high-profile client suffers a catastrophic emotional collapse and a corrupted overlay is traced back to Tess's own neural signature, she becomes the prime suspect in a digital crime that could unravel the entire empathy market. On the run and stripped of her clearance, Tess is forced underground — and into the world of illegal "freefeelers," rogue coders who weaponize emotions for blackmail, seduction, and control.
With the help of a neurodivergent hacker who sees the world in wavelengths and a whistleblower with a dangerous conscience, Tess must untangle a conspiracy embedded in the very architecture of human feeling. Because the next upgrade isn't a product — it's a total override.
Smart, fast-paced, and eerily plausible, Override is a standalone sci-fi thriller perfect for fans of Blake Crouch, William Gibson, and the emotional noir of Black Mirror. If you could control how people felt... what would you do?

Jett Carrow is an experienced science fiction author with a background in software engineering and digital security. His previous work, Override, was praised for its bold exploration of human-machine interfaces and the fragility of consciousness in a networked world. Deadlink Protocol further established his voice in the speculative tech-thriller space, and his latest novel, Sovereign Flesh, pushes even deeper into questions of bioethics, identity, and control. Carrow's writing often explores the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and human drama, focusing on the ethical and societal implications of technological advancements. He resides in the Pacific Northwest and is currently working on his next novel.