I’m still thinking about that basement.
Honestly, sci-fi usually leans into the "science" part so hard that the "fiction" feels like a dry lecture on quantum mechanics. But when I picked up The Death I Gave Him, I wasn't expecting a locked-room murder mystery that basically takes Hamlet and throws it into a high-tech pressure cooker. Em X. Liu didn't just write a book; they built a labyrinth.
It's weird. You’ve got this protagonist, Hayden Lichfield, who finds his father dead in their high-security lab. The twist? He’s the only one who can get in or out. Or so he thinks.
What is The Death I Gave Him actually about?
Let's skip the marketing fluff.
The book is a 2023 release that reimagines Shakespeare’s Hamlet through the lens of speculative technology. We are in the Elsinore Institute. It’s a research facility focused on neurological mapping and, more controversially, the pursuit of immortality—or at least a digital version of it. Hayden’s father, Graham, is the one who ends up dead.
Suddenly, Hayden is trapped. He’s got twenty-four hours before the facility resets and the guards come in. He has to solve the murder with the help of a snarky, somewhat unstable AI named Horatio.
Actually, Horatio might be my favorite part.
Most AI in books is either "I am a robot who wants to be human" or "I am a robot who wants to kill humans." Horatio is just... there. He’s a lab assistant. He’s a confidant. He is the digital ghost in the machine that makes the locked-room mystery feel claustrophobic instead of just clever.
Why the Hamlet connection matters (and why it doesn't)
You don’t need to be a Shakespeare scholar to get this.
If you know the basics—dead dad, sketchy uncle, a guy who thinks too much—you’re set. But Liu does something smarter than just a one-to-one translation. In the original play, Hamlet is paralyzed by indecision. In The Death I Gave Him, Hayden is paralyzed by the physical reality of the lab and the digital ghost of his father.
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Graham Lichfield didn't just die. He left behind a "neural map."
It’s essentially a backup of a human brain. Imagine being able to talk to a file that thinks it's your father, but knowing it's just code. That’s where the title starts to feel heavy. The death Hayden "gives" isn't just about the murder; it's about the legacy and the burden of what we leave behind in the wires.
The science of the neural map
Liu explores "S-Maps." These aren't just memories. They are active, functional simulations.
Experts in neuroethics often talk about the "Ship of Theseus" problem. If you replace every part of a ship, is it the same ship? If you scan a brain and run it on a server, is that your dad? The Death I Gave Him pushes this to an uncomfortable edge. Hayden is grieving a man who is literally talking to him through the speakers.
It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s brilliant.
Breaking down the locked-room mechanics
The Elsinore Institute is a fortress.
- Biometric locks: You need specific DNA or neural signatures to move between sectors.
- The AI Oversight: Horatio sees everything, yet he didn't see the killer.
- The Time Limit: The lockdown is absolute.
This isn't a "who-done-it" as much as it is a "how-the-hell-did-they-do-it." Hayden is investigating his own family while the clock ticks down. His uncle, Felix (the Claudius figure), is obviously suspicious, but Liu writes him with enough nuance that you almost want to believe his justifications.
Almost.
The pacing is frantic. One minute you're reading a transcript of a security log, the next you're inside Hayden's internal monologue which, frankly, is a bit of a disaster zone. He’s not a hero. He’s a guy who hasn't slept, who’s mourning, and who is probably hallucinating just a little bit.
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The queer identity in the lab
One thing people often overlook when talking about this book is how naturally it handles its queer themes.
Hayden is gay. The story doesn't stop to explain this or make it a "plot point" in the traditional sense. It’s just who he is. His relationship with the world is shaped by it, but the mystery remains the engine. It’s refreshing. We see a lot of sci-fi that treats identity as a futuristic puzzle, but here, it’s just a human reality in a world of inhuman technology.
Dealing with the ending (No spoilers, I promise)
Some people hate the ending. I loved it.
It doesn't tie everything up in a neat little bow with a "and the killer was caught and everyone lived happily ever after." That’s not how Hamlet works, and that’s not how this book works. It’s about the cost of knowledge.
When you spend 400 pages inside a high-tech bunker, you expect a big explosion or a grand revelation. What you get is something much more intimate and, honestly, more devastating. It’s about the choice to let go. Or the inability to.
Is it actually "hard" sci-fi?
Sorta.
It cares about the "how," but it cares way more about the "why." If you want 50 pages on how the processors work, go read Andy Weir. If you want to feel the crushing weight of a digital ghost screaming in your ear while you try to scrub blood off a floor, read The Death I Gave Him.
The prose is sharp.
"The dead don't stay dead when you have the right software." That's not a quote from the book, but it's the vibe. It’s sleek and clinical, like a stainless steel table, but there’s blood under the fingernails.
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How to actually approach this book
If you’re going to read it, do it in one or two sittings.
The atmosphere is so thick that if you put it down for a week, you lose that sense of being trapped in the basement with Hayden. It’s a sensory experience. You should feel the cold air of the server room. You should hear the hum of the AI.
Actionable Takeaways for Readers
If you're diving into this world, here is how to get the most out of the experience:
- Brush up on the basics of Hamlet: Just a five-minute Wikipedia refresh on the characters of Gertrude, Polonius (represented by Zhang here), and Laertes will make the subtext pop.
- Pay attention to the timestamps: The book uses a non-linear structure in places, using logs and transcripts. Don't skip them. They contain the clues that Hayden misses because he's too emotional.
- Look for the "Horatio" glitches: The AI isn't perfect. The moments where the code slips are the moments where the truth hides.
- Check out the audiobook: If you struggle with dense technical prose, the narrator for this one does a fantastic job of capturing Hayden’s escalating paranoia.
The Death I Gave Him is a reminder that we are obsessed with our own ghosts. Whether we use a seance or a supercomputer, we just can't seem to let the people we love stay gone. It’s a haunting, high-speed tragedy that proves Shakespeare still has some teeth, even in the digital age.
Go read it. Just don't expect to feel comfortable afterward.
For those looking to explore more in this vein, look into the works of Rivers Solomon or Arkady Martine. They share that same DNA of "high-concept science mixed with deep, often painful, human emotion." Start with the first three chapters tonight. The way Liu sets the scene in the lab is a masterclass in atmospheric writing. You'll know within ten pages if you're ready to stay in the basement with Hayden.
Once you finish, look up the author's interviews regarding the "archive" as a concept. It changes how you view the "neural maps" in the story. Instead of seeing them as characters, you start seeing them as data privacy nightmares, which adds a whole new layer of horror to the "immortality" Graham Lichfield was trying to sell.
The real tragedy isn't that he died; it's that he couldn't even leave behind a clean version of his life. Everything in the Elsinore Institute is corrupted, eventually. That's the real lesson here.
Technology doesn't save us from our flaws; it just makes them permanent.
Keep an eye on the side characters, especially those who seem like background noise. In a locked-room mystery, nobody is actually background noise. Everyone is a gear in the machine. And machines, as Hayden learns, eventually break.