{"product_id":"dead-zone-penn-mercer-9798251948578","title":"Dead Zone","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe map shows ninety-four percent coverage. The wire arrived. By every official measure, the programme has succeeded.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRuth Calloway is the county administrator for Darke County, Ohio, overseeing a forty-seven-million-dollar federal initiative to bring AI-powered services to rural communities. When the infrastructure is built and the tools are live, she expects to feel the clear satisfaction of a problem solved. Instead, she begins keeping a list. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe list is of people the signal reaches and the system does not see. The farmer whose ninety acres the agricultural AI cannot understand. The retired schoolteacher the digital literacy platform treats like a child. The elderly woman who needs two volunteers and ninety minutes to book a single telehealth appointment. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWorking alongside a young technologist who names what she is seeing - the participation gap, the distance between coverage and use - and a retired machinist who knows something about what it means when a system forgets the people inside it, Ruth builds a record. Patient, precise, and made with the moral seriousness of Steinbeck's long-view American fiction, \u003ci\u003eDead Zone\u003c\/i\u003e asks what it means to serve a community, and what it costs when the answer is designed without them. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eA companion novel to \u003ci\u003eRedundant\u003c\/i\u003e (2026). Each stands alone.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Penn Mercer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798251948578\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/20\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 128\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.27d","brand":"Penn Mercer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49172354728191,"sku":"9798251948578","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/dead-zone-penn-mercer-9798251948578","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}