Hidden Recording

Hidden Recording is a slow-burn investigative thriller about a crime buried inside "erased" sound—and the people who learn to read what silence refuses to hide. When a mall's CCTV audio is wiped but the electrical mains hum remains, technician Kenji Ito hears a pattern that shouldn't exist. What begins as routine maintenance becomes the map of a night no camera captured. Joined by reporter Nina Hart and a fire marshal known simply as Fire, Kenji uncovers a network of architectural "comfort" devices—hidden boxes that dull startle, block radios, and turn ordinary rooms into stages for manipulation. Their investigation moves from utility closets to a courtroom where standards, not speeches, decide the truth. The novel blends mystery, horror, and courtroom drama with speculative civic engineering. Instead of genius detectives and miraculous gadgets, it offers checklists, timing audits, posted diagnostics, and the quiet courage of people who choose accountability over spectacle. Hidden Recording is a story about cities, ethics, and the strange power of boring tools to protect the public. It asks one question: If silence can lie, can we teach a room to tell the truth—on schedule?