Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Digital Gaslighting and a #giveaway from Barbara Ross


HALLIE EPHRON:
I'm always thrilled when Barbara Ross comes on to talk about a new book, and I'm especially fond of her new Jane Darrowfield "Professional Busybody" series. And today she's giving away a copy of the new book in the series, Jane Darrowfield and the Madwoman Next Door. I crack up just reading the title, and I'm dying to know where she got the idea for this new book. 

BARBARA ROSS: Sometimes you know the exact moment that sparked the idea for a book. That’s the case for my new mystery, Jane Darrowfield and the Madwoman Next Door.

Last spring when I was in Milwaukee for a conference, I visited my high school friends Amy and Tom Fritz. Appropo of I- don’t-remember-what (mystery writing I’m sure but beyond that…), Tom mentioned a relatively new phenomenon of abusers torturing their exes using their home security systems. If the person no longer in the home keeps the phone app and codes for the security system, from the other side of town he (it’s almost always a he) can turn off the heat or raise it to the max, blast music, turn lights on and off, open and close the garage door, even change the entry code every time the victim goes out.

“It can happen when one person becomes an expert in the home security system, and the
other person, the victim, has never paid much attention to it,” Tom said.

That struck me like blow. That is me. Not the victim of an abusing ex, thank goodness. But the partner in a relationship who understands next to nothing about the home security system.

There was a system in place when we moved into our current house. The previous owners had multiple homes and were rarely in residence. I thought the security system was over-the-top for what we needed. In addition to door alarms and window alarms, there were motion sensors we could set for the whole house when we were out, or for other floors when we were sleeping.

Nonetheless, we extended the system to add a doorbell and a doorbell camera because a) my study is on the fourth floor and I got tired of running to the first to answer the door for people I didn’t want to speak to in the first place, b) until then the only thing that rang when the doorbell was pressed was a princess phone on the third floor that had no other function in our landlineless house and couldn’t be heard from any other location. My husband also added cameras to our roof decks so he could monitor the snow buildup when we were away.

My husband figured everything out and dealt with the security company. I learned the codes to get into the garage and the house and that was it. Our marriage is like that. When one person takes responsibility for a thing, the other one pretty much leaves them to it.

Which means I am one of those people who could be tortured by their home security system. If I walked into a room in my house at night and alarms started going off around me, I wouldn’t have a clue what to do.

Once I knew what I wanted to write about, I started doing research. At first, I wasn’t even sure what to call this type of harassment. There’s lots written about cyberbullying and cyberstalking, which take place entirely online, or doxing in which sensitive personal real-world information is exposed online. But what was this? Once I found the words cyber gaslighting and digital gaslighting the articles flowed, each one more horrifying than the next.

The term gaslighting comes from the 1938 play Gas Light, and subsequent 1940 and 1944 movies. The plot in each varies slightly but the theme is the same: a husband socially isolates his wife and works to convince her that what she is seeing, hearing and experiencing isn’t real, causing her, and others, to question her sanity. The story is set in 1880s London and a key feature is the dimming of the gaslights in the couple’s home. (I write about seeing the 1944 movie in Key West on the edge of the pandemic here.)

Gaslights were the technology of the 1880s. Smart homes and the “internet of things” are the technology of today. The common thread in the original movie and Jane Darrowfield and the Madwoman Next Door is that in each, the victim’s home, the place where she should feel safest in the world, is used as a weapon against her.

That sense of unease occurs in the first scene in Madwoman, when Jane’s neighbor approaches her and begs, “I want you to figure out if I’m crazy.”movies.

Readers: What do you think about security systems and the “internet of things?” Are you participating in that universe or staying away from it?


Comment below to be entered to win a copy of Jane Darrowfield and the Madwoman Next Door. Jane Darrowfield and the Madwoman Next Door was released on October 27, exclusively in paper and exclusively from Barnes & Noble for one year. The first book in the series, Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody is available in print, ebook, and audiobook formats from all retailers. You can find out more about it here.

Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries and the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Barbara’s Maine Clambake novellas are included along with stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis in holiday anthologies from Kensington Publishing. Barbara and her husband live in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com

100 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your new book, Barbara . . . . I really enjoy gaslighting stories so I’m looking forward to reading Jane’s story.

    I think I’m glad we don’t have a security system . . . all we have is a motion-sensor light that comes on over the garage when we pull into the driveway [or the deer wander close enough to set it off] . . . .

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    1. There is something about the deer setting off the light that is very funny.

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    2. We just installed motion sensing lights for the driveway and it freaks me out every time they go on.

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    3. We have a set of motion sensing lights outside our bedroom, and 90% of the time when I check to see what set them off it's a skunk! I've seen it going out for the night, and coming back early in the morning. And yes, we live 1/2-mile from the Cincinnati city limit!

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  2. I can't wait to read this, Barb! Also - a PRINCESS phone? That is so funny.

    We don't have a "smart" house, and I wouldn't want one. No Alexa listening in for this girl. No front porch camera. But, while I am much more fluent with software and phones than my partner, I am hopeless with the television. I can't watch a movie if he's not home. I'm lucky if I can turn on Masterpiece Theater by myself. That's his realm and I don't mind a bit.

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    1. I am the same way. I always tell my husband if anything happens to him I'll never be able to watch TV again. Mostly, we split the difference. I do software and he does hardware, but not when it comes to the alarm system and the TV.

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    2. TVs aren't smart? Used to be there was a dial. Now there are... how many do you hae? we have 3... remote controls. Smart? Nuh uh.

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  3. Welcome Barb! I’ll be eager to read Jane’s new adventure. Neither one of us are too good with fancy technology, nor do we want Alexa listening in to everything that goes on in the house. Say, I do suddenly wonder if she could finish house training the puppy? But that’s beside the point. Although it could be a good plot twist right? And like Edith, I am in trouble if John’s not here to work the television LOL. It’s ridiculous!

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    1. i like this idea of Alexa training the puppy. Someone should get to work on it pronto.

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  4. Gee, remember when a phone call asking if your refrigerator was running was about the worst thing someone across town could do?

    Barbara, congratulations on your new book. The plot sounds terrific. I need to laugh and am steering towards happy endings books these days.

    In answer to your question, no. Manual locks, manual lights, even manual heating and cooling. You turn it on, you turn it off. I hate knowing that a stranger can enter my computer. No on line banking. Just no.

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    1. always wanted one of those fridge running calls so I could say no it tripped and fell down. thx for the memory.

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    2. Nowadays your refrigerator can apparently tell you when it's time to buy milk. I don't have one of those. I hate appliances that nag. The dryer buzzer and the dishwasher buzzer drive me crazy as it is.

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    3. Barb, I turned the buzzers off. Yeah, no nagging appliances for me.

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    4. Appliances that nag!! A Stephen King novel??

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  5. Congratulations on your new release. Gaslighting makes for a great mystery.

    We acquired an electronic thermostat with our new compressor, and learned a year or two later that when the batteries inside it die, the a/c dies. Everything else is non-electronic. I gave the cable guy a lavish tip for teaching me how to juggle three remotes to watch a DVD.

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    1. When we hooked the security system to our thermostat (because we are away much of the winter)we discovered the thermostat wasn't hooked to any power source--it was just running on batteries! If those had gone when we were away...

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    2. Yes, the battery-operated thermostat. We discovered the hard way that we had one of those. Such a stupid idea.

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  6. I'm so eager to read this book. Jane Darrowfield is such a great character, and you, Barb, are such a wonderful plotter. Congratulations on its publication!

    PS: Not just a phone, but you had a princess phone in the house before you got your doorbell? That's a blast from the past! What color was it?

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    1. The phone was a sort of a neutral beige. The weird part is, the house was built in 1987, and in addition to the fancy security system, it had this super-fancy sound system with speakers everywhere. So why people like that had the doorbell ring on a princess phone is beyond me.

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    2. That room must have been somebody's home office, or served some other function that kept one of the residents there much of the day.

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  7. Barbara, your new book sounds great, something I want to read for sure! Since I live alone there is no point in having any sort of gizmo I can't use on my own. However I did run into trouble when I needed a new printer. I couldn't even set it up myself and I thought I had bought the most basic item they had. Spent way to long with tech support "talking me through it." And I still can't make a booklet, which I could do on my old 15 year old printer. Why do things need to be wifi enabled? I think my washing machine has that capability but it's nothing I want. I wouldn't even own an Alexa but my son gave it to me as a gift. I do use it - every day I ask her the question of the day and that's pretty much it. I keep it turned off otherwise.

    But I can definitely see the potential for all sorts of mischief! Looking forward to find out how the neighbor's case is resolved in your book.

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    1. My husband has put some sort of Alexa thing in our living room. It just appeared. Every once in awhile it will hear something it thinks is a command from a voice on the TV and will do something. Since the TV is now giving it commands, maybe I don't need to be in the mix at all. I wonder what mischief they all get up to when I'm not home?

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    2. "...the mischief they get up to when I'm not home..." Hm-m-m, and that sounds like it too could be a book. Gigi, what do you think?

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    3. Oh, if the appliances start to gang up on us, we're all doomed!

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  8. I have stayed away from home security (one, unnecessary; two, it's another entry point for a hacker). And I'm not much into the "internet of things," although I did rather enjoy using Alexa to turn off the lights in the living room (from the back bedroom) when I visited my sister (my brother-in-law was very into gadgets). I do, however, want to replace our thermostat with one that can be controlled via an app - only because the one we have is ancient and the scheduling function is incomprehensible - even with the instructions. Someday.

    But if we did get into it, it would be me who could torture my husband. I am the IT manager for the household. LOL

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    1. I love the idea of a thermostat's incomprehensible scheduling function thwarting the household IT manager. If it gets replaced, that's what it deserves.

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  9. Congratulations on the new book, Barbara! It sounds great.

    I particularly enjoyed your description of your marriage in the post. That is exactly how it works in my marriage, too. Divide and conquer!

    I have been very, very resistant to the internet of things. To the point that I sometimes second-guess myself and wonder if I am becoming a curmudgeonly, tin-hat wearing, paranoid old coot. I can't say how reassuring I am finding it to hear so many others in the Reds community -- women I admire and respect -- expressing the same doubts.

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    1. Susan, au contraire, I think you're smart!

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    2. I understand completely. I vowed I would never be one of those people who didn't know who celebrities are and now I an the worst...So we can travel to old coot-dom together.

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    3. I'm driving you ladies on the old coot train! When blogs (like JR, actually) sometimes ask who would play X in their books (or mine), I draw a complete blank. Total.

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    4. I am honored to be in such excellent company on the old coot train!!

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  10. Barb, diabolical, that's what gaslighting is in any form. The things people do to one another--you'd think I'd be inured to it all by now--although worse, in my book, are the sick weirdos who use modern technology to terrorize little kids--thinking of those children's room monitors.

    We're low-tech here--although I can replace the batteries for the heating/cooling system control and yes, I yell at the smoke detector--"I'm just cooking!"

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    1. Human beings are the worst, right? And the best, of course. I also yell at the appliances, particularly the nagging dryer buzzer.

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    2. Laughing, Flora, because the house I used to rent had a smoke alarm too near the stove. I'm sure the landlady meant well then she installed it there, but it went off every time I had more than one burner going, smoke or no smoke. It really cramped my cooking style.

      I turned off my dryer buzzer a long time ago, although every now and then one of the cats brushes against it hard enough to turn it back on. Or is it the cat? However it happens, it startles me when the dryer starts to beep.

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  11. Congratulations on your new book Barb !
    You opened my eyes on a situation I knew nothing about: people being harassed by others with household applications and security.
    Thank God I have nothing like that and no one to take control of it or of me.

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    1. I was quite shocked when I learned about it, too.

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  12. Barb, I'm most impressed that you climb the stairs to a fourth floor office every day! Sounds like a great way to keep in shape, especially if you forget stuff.

    I'm betting the princess phone setup was a forerunner of the more tech-y Ring system. What a great idea in a big house, long before its time.

    The only device in the house smarter than we are is our thermostat, which also gives us the outdoor temperature at our location. For some reason I think this is brilliant, and I use it all the time. The thermostat also knows when it's time to switch over from heat to A/C, thank goodness, since our Ohio weather pingpongs back and forth so often. When I was choosing appliances for this house I purposely avoided the wifi-enabled ones. They're vastly more expensive, for one thing, and it's just another feature to go haywire. And I can look inside the refrigerator on my own to see if we need more milk. Because we always need more milk.

    Remember when everyone's VCR was blinking "00.00"? Ours never did, because as the tech-oriented person in the household I was always minding all the electronic clocks. Now they mostly adjust on their own, which makes you stop and think, too.

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    1. The nearest bathroom is on the second floor, so I do climb those stairs several times a day.

      Since the time change is coming, I was remembering just the other day when changing the clock in our car meant sticking a pen in a little hole on the dash. Some things are definitely easier nowadays.

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    2. Karen, "another feature to go haywire" reminded me of the wall oven in our house when we moved here. It was old already and small and had a timer that I'd never used. However, that timer occasionally decided on its own to activate. On one particularly long visit from my in-laws one Saturday in the late 1980's, while waiting for the chicken to be ready for dinner, I wondered why there wasn't any aroma. It turns out that turning the oven on that day wasn't good enough since the timer, had activated and the oven wasn't even on yet, let alone cooking the beast. I cried. My F-I-L was an electrician. He came back the following weekend, took the oven apart and disabled that sucker.

      Another time, Irwin and I were on our way to Newport, RI for our very first vacation together. We were dropping the dog off at my brother's. When we got back into the car, which was a 1983 Olds 88 convertible, it wouldn't start. Not for any reason. My brother drove Irwin back to our condo to get his car and we went on our vacation leaving my brother in charge of finding out what was wrong. Well, in 1983, seat belts being mandatory, my car wouldn't start unless the seatbelt was engaged. The mechanism refused to recognize that the seatbelt was buckled, so it wouldn't start. The mechanic disabled that feature. Problem solved.

      So, I already knew that too much "smart" for appliances wasn't going to ever be my chioce.

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    3. I still have to stick a pen in the little hole on the dash! The fewer electronics in my car the better!

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    4. Oh, man, uncooked fowl is the worst!!

      I don't think I ever had a car that wouldn't start for that reason, but my keyless start car's battery died during the last Malice they held in Bethesda. I'd parked it in a garage in Arlington, and the key wouldn't work, and I had to do all kinds of crazy tapdancing to get the battery jumped. What a disaster. Luckily I was staying right across from the subway station, so could easily get back and forth.

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    5. Karen, I know! Technology, only good if it works!

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  13. Yes! I cannot wait to read this book – – it sounds absolutely terrific. (My books are all about gaslighting too. ) And I will confess to loving our Alexa! She answers all my research questions, and reminds my husband when to take his medicine, and plays any music we want at any time. And if she listens to what we say, she is going to be so bored .
    And our home security system, with things that make the doors ping when they open, and we can monitor our house while we are gone – – remember those days? – by watching the security cameras. I love it. Plus, if I am in my office writing, and say, Jonathan opens the front door, I can hear it Ping! And I can call out: where are you going? It’s really fun.
    Congratulations! That sounds great.

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    1. I too feel like there is nothing that goes on in the house that is worthy of reporting to big brother, though it is creepy the way when my husband and I talk about buying something, say, we are suddenly inundated with Facebook and Google ads for it. Some people say this is simply heightened awareness of the topic, but since the TV and I have a contentious relationship anyway, I suspect the little devil.

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    2. When I bought my house it was in original 1960 condition, including an odd object attached to the front door. There was a round casing of some sort, with a string hanging out one side. On the doorjamb was a cup hook, clearly meant to hold the loop on the end of the string. I couldn't resist, so I hooked it up. Turned out the device was a music box. When the door is closed the tension on the string winds up the mechanism. When the door is open, the tension on the string is relaxed, and music begins to play. I bought the house from a friend who explained her parents installed the music box so they would know when the kids--dashing in and out to play--had left the front door open. I still haven't identified the tune.

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    3. THAT IS GREAT, Gigi. Love that. I wish I could hear it...love to know what it is.

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    4. Oh, yes, Barb--questionable stuff happens like that all the time. Like she'll just..say something, out of the blue. Once she said something about flamingoes. And yes, I call it "she." But hey, do your worst, big brother.

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  14. When we moved into our current house, we didn't even know just it was a "smart" house until we had a security company come out to change the alarm provider. We apparently have smart lights and other features we have no idea how to operate - a perfect opportunity for the previous homeowners to virtually gaslight us! Scary thought ~

    Congratulations on your new Jane Darrowfield book! I look forward to reading it (and hopefully won't get too paranoid)!

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    1. This is exactly our situation! The previous owners put in all these different combinations to turn on and off motion sensors. It's crazy!

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  15. I'm with Flora on gaslighting of any kind: it's diabolical -- and scary. I don't feel much differently about the IOT and 'smart' houses. I always wonder what mayhem would ensue if/when the power goes off...

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    1. It is diabolical because the main thing about gaslighting is someone you care about or rely on telling you you're not seeing what you're seeing, or hearing what you're hearing or experiencing what you're experiencing, all to undermine you and get you to question yourself.

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    2. Exactly, Barb. I remember seeing the Gaslight movie in my early teens and the horror of it has stayed with me over the decades...

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  16. Our home security is four watch cats.. Alexa mumbles. We are the last luddites on Nome street no cells phones just a land line.. and I am so happy Jane is back with a new problem to solve. Keep it up, love your thoughts.

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    1. I still remember--vividly--the time in the early 2000s when an employee told me he didn't have a landline. I couldn't imagine. Now my kids who are both grown and have kids have never had a landline and since our last move we don't have one either.

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    2. A friend overheard her seven-year-old talking to her five-year-old. The little one had asked his big brother what a "home phone" was. Big brother explained, "It's just like a real phone except it never leaves the house and all you can do is talk on it."

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    3. This cracks me up! And it's so true!

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  17. I received this book as part of a giveaway. I read it, and loved it. The idea (and the relative ease) of digital gaslighting sent chills down my spine. Who hasn't thought of the possibility of someone taking control of their security system, Internet, phone. Yikes.

    Well done, Barb, and congratulations on the new release.

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  18. This sounds wonderful and scary! I guess it would be possible to do it to a car also in this modern digital age of cars controlled by computers.

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    1. Have you seen those videos of cars steaming down the highway--the driver and passenger sound asleep? Terrifying. Although someday soon an astonished grandchild will probably say to us, "You drove your cars?"

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  19. Barbara, I just finished reading the first in the Jane Darrowfield series and thought it was delightful! Can't wait to read the next. As for security, we installed a burglar alarm in our previous house after being robbed . . . twice! The second time, the thief actually took the remote control boat my visiting father had just finished building and sailing in our fish pond! As for a smart house, I like having a smart doorbell and thermostat, but that's about it.

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    1. I am so glad you enjoyed Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody.

      A thief stealing a remote-controlled boat. That is a head scratcher.

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  20. Congratulations on your new book, Barbara! I loved the first Jane Darrowfield novel! Can't wait to read her next adventure.

    I'm a total Luddite when it comes to the Internet of Things. My fridge keeps things cold, but I don't talk to it. My thermostat has to be reset manually. When someone does something skeevy in the general vicinity of my house, all four dogs let me know--and let the skeever know to stay far, far away. I'm okay with all of that.

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    1. I'm so glad you loved the first Jane Darrowfield.

      You know, I keep ranting about how I don't want to have "relationships" with my pharmacy, cable provider, etc. etc. They are so needy and keep sending me surveys to see you they're doing. I don't want to have "relationships" with my appliances, either.

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    2. Ha! Exactly. And do you really have the time to keep up with all the various "rewards" programs and "bonus points" you can apply to buy things you don't want?

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    3. And . . . Jane is now on her way to me!

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  21. How about smart devices in the car? I'm forever grateful that my car tells me to turn off the headlights. And that it locks itself if I forget. But why can't the tire pressure warning light tell you which tire's low?

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    1. We always have the opposite problem. When the temperature changes the car insists the tire pressure it low. It's a lie.

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  22. You’ve convinced me to continue my Luddite ways. I do not talk to any of our appliances other than to curse the land line when Unavailable calls. Several times a day. We got rid of the alarm system that was installed by previous owners of our house. We did not replace it with anything. We keep our front gate locked instead. My husband bought a new pickup that’s loaded with all the safety bells and whistles. I have to snicker when it fusses at him for drifting in his lane. I think all this new improved stuff is going to dumb everyone down.

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    1. I have a narrow driveway, and had to drive a rented Explorer for a month or so. It was like playing a video game to reach the street without setting off alarms for being too near the fence or the hedge. I always lost.

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    2. Our garage opens right onto the sidewalk. By coincidence we got our current car the week we moved into our house. I don't know that I ever would get out of the garage if I didn't have a backup camera.

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  23. I'll go back and read the comments, need to get to work soon, so I'll just add a short note. I don't have a security system. I thought about getting some kind of doorbell set up after last Thanksgiving, when someone tried to get in with a sledge hammer but I didn't because I lived in an apartment complex. I finally moved across town. I don't have a system here or a camera on the door. I'm more tempted to put the camera on the back door. I don't use it and the home next door is vacant. I wonder if my aunt changed her code to the garage since the last time I housesat for her? Tempting, very tempting. Nah, she is approaching 90, I'll leave her be.

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    1. I don't think anyone changes their codes--hardly ever. We've stayed in a lot of Airbnbs and I always wonder how many people have those codes.

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  24. I do love the convenience. About the only thing I really have is my thermostat, but I love being able to set it higher even for a few hours when I'm not going to be home and then turn it down when I am heading home. (If I remember.)

    However, I do worry about stuff like what you portrayed in this book. It's a double edged sword for sure.

    And this book is wonderful! You need to read it.

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    1. Thank you, Mark! I'm so glad you liked it. And technology is a double-edged sword for sure.

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  25. No smart stuff in this house. Just me, I hope. I really don't want to phone my thermostat or fridge when I'm away (away...? remember that?) And I'm damned if I want anything talking back to me. I talk to myself too much. Okay, maybe it would be nice to have the liquor cabinet know when to restock the red wine. As long as it also placed the order and had it delivered.

    I'm intrigued by how the Victorian Gaslight technology is reflected a hundredfold in today's e-world. The husband up in the attic turning up the gas, and two floors below, it goes dim in the drawing room. So simple. So sinister.

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    1. I love it that you are the smartest thing in your house.

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  26. I commented earlier that I still get to change my dashboard clock with a pen. Nope. Not anymore. I forgot I replaced the radio/CD player/clock. There is a clock somewhere. I saw it once. But it is too small to read from the driver's seat so I might as well not have one. It can reset itself or not. Can you gaslight new technology in your car? Asking for a friend.

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  27. Barb, your book sounds wonderful--and scary! Congratulations! What a diabolical plot!

    I am married to Mr. Techie/Gadget/Fixit, so we have our share of smart things. Our thermostats and sprinkler system are programmable, but they're on a secure network. So, whew, no digital gaslighting. Our refrigerator is too old to be smart! As is my car. The big entertainment center in the living room is another story--it's taken me a couple of years to learn how to turn on the TV by myself, but I can do it.

    Our house alarms require two meals a day, lol.

    We do have Alexa and I LOVE her. The very best thing is being able to listen to audio books anywhere in the house.

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  28. The smarter they become, the more we need to treat our house alarms like pets.

    Between you and Hank I am feeling like I need to be less passive about Alexa.

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  29. What a nightmare that would be, to have someone controlling the security system in your house from afar. I would be at the mercy, or lack of, from that person, as I would be quite willing to let someone else deal with the technology of the system when installed. We don't have a system, but I'm fairly certain I would only want to know the codes for getting in the house.

    Your new book sounds so interesting, Barbara, a cautionary tale even. Jane Darrowfield is a character I'd like to get to know.

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    1. I'm with you. I only wanted to know the codes to get in the house. But now that I've done the research for this book, I'm having second thoughts.

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  30. Looking forward to reading your new release, Barbara. I'm partially on the security bandwagon. I do have a doorbell camera, but that only works once in awhile. I just got a new thermostat when I got a new furnace. And it's very convenient to be able to turn the heat up and down from my phone. So I have some what embraced the modern age, but not totally.

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    1. I find that no one who rings my doorbell actually stands in front of the camera, since it is on the door frame not front and center on the door. Therefore I spend a lot of time looking at an empty street.

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    1. Isn't it? Fascinating and terrible.

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    2. I'm with Susan--this is absolutely fascinating. And so creepy horrible! And I loved the first Jane Darrowfield mystery, so I'm definitely looking forward to the second. And the movie Gaslight I haven't seen in years, maybe I'll put it on the list for the weekend.
      -Melanie

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  32. Barbara, I love your books, especially the Jane Darrowfield mysteries. We have a home security system and I know how to use it. It's not super fancy. I don't think I could be gaslighted, I would assume something was haywire in the security system. When I was younger it probably would have worked.

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    1. We do gain experience, or at least get less reactive, as we get older. I'm so glad yuo love the books.

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  33. Since I think it is more important that I can get in my house, I don't have a security system. It's hard enough using my key when I have a bunch of groceries, library books, etc. If I had to key in a code, I'd probably forget and have to dig in my purse to find it.

    I wouldn't want Alexa because I already talk to myself, the TV, books, plants, etc. I don't need anything else! Stay safe and well. Looking forward to the new book.

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    1. But if you had Alexa, when you talked to yourself, someone would answer. Wait, that would be a little creepy.

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  34. I grew up in a house from 1910ish with electric lights, but I can imagine how it must have been with gas lights. Also the electricity went out often in western MA. Also Gaslight is one my favorite creepy movies to watch.

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    1. The old gas dining room sconces had been electrified in the first house we lived in.

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  35. Congratulations on your book! I am not "into" technology but my son bought me an echo so I can talk to Alexa!

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  36. Am adding this book to my TBR list, intriguing premise that makes me glad I don't have any smart devices controlled from a phone app. Sometimes it pays to be old-school. :)

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  38. I love this series, Barbara and can't wait to read this one. The idea of being terrorized by your own technology - brilliant! I am a luddite. No Alexa and no "systems". I have dogs and everyone is home ALL THE TIME these days so why bother?

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