CANR
WORK TITLE: Leave No Trace
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COUNTRY: United Kingdom
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PERSONAL
Born 1970, in the British Midlands, England; husband Steve (deceased); children: two.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer; C&W Agency, senior strategist in research into AI and genomics.
AWARDS:Sunday Times bestseller, Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasy New Blood Dagger Award, Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, 2024, all for In the Blink of an Eye.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
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British-based Jo Callaghan is a senior strategist at C&W Agency researching the effects of AI and geonomics on the workforce. Her 2024 debut crime thriller In the Blink of an Eye was inspired by losing her husband to lung cancer in 2019, and incorporates her experience with AI. First in the “Kat and Lock” series, the book explores learning to live with loss and the potential of AI. Detective Chief Superintendent Kat Frank is a mid-forties widowed single mother of a teenage boy. While she trusts her intuition based on years of on-the-beat police work, she’s skeptical when she’s partnered with the new AIDE (Artificial Intelligent Detective Entity) known as Lock. Resembling a slender Black man, Lock is a hologram that Kat activates on a device worn on her wrist that does statistical calculations and data analysis in seconds. But Kat would rather trust her gut reactions and human observations.
Kat and Locke’s first case involves two missing men, but they soon realize they have discovered an ongoing abduction case that could make Kat a target. “I appreciated this tightly woven crime thriller and how she develops these characters and their lives in and out of the precinct. I was invested not only in solving the crimes, but with the characters themselves,” declared a contributor to Caffeinated Reviewer. Online at Jen Med’s Book Reviews, Jen Lucas liked the unique characters, reporting: “The more we get to learn about them, the easier they are to like as all have incidents in their past who inform who they are today, and each backstory really adds to the emotion of the book itself.”
In an interview with David Barnett at Guardian, Callaghan explained that even with her job predicting long-term trends in AI, she was unprepared for how timely her book became, saying: “I had no idea when I started writing that AI would enter the mainstream so quickly…I think everyone’s been surprised by the speed at which things have developed in the last two years.” She said the book asks the question: “What are the limits to what can AI learn and what happens when it reaches that point?”
Second in the series, Leave No Trace, finds detective Kat and Lock, the first AI detective, on another case. The disfigured body of 29-year-old Gary Jones was found crucified at the top of a hill in the British Midlands. Then another man, who recently left a pub alone, was found in a similar deathly pose. After young men are told to avoid pubs or at least to not leave a pub alone, angry pub patrons along with reporters and social media, are putting the pressure on Kat and Lock to find the killer. They are especially motivated when their colleague, Rayan Hassan, could be next. “Callaghan tweaks the traditional British detective story just enough, freshening up a well-worn formula,” according to a Publishers Weekly contributor. In Kirkus Reviews, a critic said: “This thriller may feature state-of-the-art AI, but its solid craftsmanship is timeless.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2024, review of Leave No Trace.
Publishers Weekly, November 25, 2024, review of Leave No Trace, p. 37.
ONLINE
Caffeinated Reviewer, https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ (January 2, 2025), review of In the Blink of an Eye.
C&W Agency, https://cwagency.co.uk/ (March 1, 2025), “Jo Callaghan.”
Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/ (July 19, 2024) David Barnett, “Jo Callaghan Wins Crime Novel of the Year with Story of an AI Detective.”
Jen Med’s Book Reviews, https://jenmedsbookreviews.com (December 2, 2024), review of In the Blink of an Eye.
Jo Callaghan works as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and geonomics on the workforce. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019, she started writing In the Blink of an Eye, her debut crime novel and the first in the Kat and Lock series, which explores learning to live with loss and what it means to be human. It was a BBC Two’s Between the Covers pick, as well as a Waterstones Thriller of the Month, and went on be a Sunday Times bestseller and 2024 winner of both the prestigious Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger awards. To date it has been published in over fifteen different countries. Jo lives with her two children in the Midlands, and loves connecting with readers on social media as @JoCallaghanKat. She is currently working on further novels in the series.
Jo Callaghan wins crime novel of the year with story of an AI detective
This article is more than 6 months old
In the Blink of an Eye was praised at the Theakston Old Peculier crime writing festival as ‘changing the way we think about policing forever’
David Barnett
Fri 19 Jul 2024 12.29 EDT
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A“boundary-pushing take on the police procedural” which features a human detective working with an AI sleuth in order to solve a missing persons case has won the coveted Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year award.
In the Blink of an Eye, the debut novel from author Jo Callaghan, was announced on Thursday night as the winner at the annual crime writing festival in Harrogate.
Book cover: Jo Callaghan, In the Blink of an Eye
Photograph: Simon & Schuster
Midlands-born Callaghan, 54, said she was “genuinely shocked” to scoop the honour from a selection voted on by both a panel of experts and members of the public. Shortlisted authors included Mark Billingham, Lisa Jewell, Liz Nugent, William Hussey and Mick Herron.
In the Blink of an Eye follows recently bereaved police detective Kat Frank, who is partnered with an AI colleague named AIDE Lock, showing how the cold logic of computers can work with human intuition to crack cases. AIDE stands for “Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity”.
Callaghan drew on both her professional and personal life to write the book. In her day job as a strategist, she considers what the workforce might look like in 10 to 15 years, and how AI will affect it.
More personally, in 2019, she lost her husband Steve to lung cancer, which helped her explore the bereavement experienced by her main character.
Callaghan began writing when her husband bought her a laptop on her 40th birthday and finally published In the Blink of an Eye when she was 53. She had written five books over the preceding 13 years, ranging from children’s to young adult to fantasy, but none were published.
She told the Guardian she had the idea for the AI detective story in 2017 but, after Steve’s diagnosis, had no time to write it. “What I did do was start writing a blog about what it felt like for him and me going through that experience, and a lot of people said, oh that’s so beautiful, so powerful.
I realised I was writing better because I was writing from the heart
“I was just writing what I was feeling and thinking and … I realised I was writing better because I was writing from the heart,” she said. “When I wrote this book – which was literally just to distract myself because I needed to keep busy for my two children, I needed to do something at night – I think I just carried on writing in that vein, from the heart, whereas I think before I’d been writing with my telephone voice.”
Even with her job predicting long-term trends involving AI, she was unprepared for just how topical the book would become. “I had no idea when I started writing that AI would enter the mainstream so quickly,” she said. “I think everyone’s been surprised by the speed at which things have developed in the last two years.
“I didn’t even know if I wanted to get the book published when I finished it, after all the rejections with my earlier work. It had served its purpose, it had kept me alive, kept me going, so I thought anything else that happens is a bonus”.
She reckoned the book might be too niche, “falling somewhere between crime and science fiction”. In the end, it was bought by Simon & Schuster and published in January 2023, just as the AI tool ChatGPT was gaining prominence.
That March the book was selected for the Sara Cox-fronted BBC books show Between the Covers, and featured on the New Blood panel at the Theakston Old Peculier crime writing festival this time last year. “I had a little bit of luck,” said Callaghan. “I just kept getting all these lifts, these little gusts of wind that kept it up.”
This year Callaghan published Leave No Trace, the second book featuring Kat Frank and her AI partner. Callaghan anticipates a four-book series featuring the pair, and is currently working on edits to book three.
What are the limits to what can AI learn and what happens when it reaches that point?
“I don’t see it as a 26-book crime series or something like that,” she said. “The story arc is between Kat and Lock and asks the question: What are the limits to what can AI learn and what happens when it reaches that point? I think there has to be an answer to that, and a resolution, and that’s what I’m aiming for.”
At the awards ceremony on Thursday night, hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson, Callaghan received a £3,000 prize and an engraved beer cask made by one of Britain’s last coopers.
Earlier this year, the awards were criticised because the longlist for best novel did not feature any books by writers of colour. “Given that the festival had to issue an apology in 2021 for failing somehow to invite any female author of colour to participate on any panel, one might have thought they would have been more mindful,” said barrister and crime novelist Harriet Tyce, who wrote to the prize’s organisers to express her concerns. “There’s just no excuse for it.”
A spokesperson for the festival said at the time the organisers “actively seek to provide a platform for writers from all communities and encourage publishers to consider diversity in all our interactions, from submitting authors for the festival programme to entering them for the awards.”
Also announced this week were the winners of the inaugural Val McDermid Debut award, named after the Scottish writer who co-founded the festival in 2003. It went to Marie Tierney for Deadly Animals, about a 13-year-old girl on the hunt for a serial killer. The outstanding achievement award was given to Martina Cole, famous for her gritty, female-centred books about London’s underworld.
Simon Theakston, chairman of Theakston, said that In the Blink of An Eye is a “boundary-pushing take on the police procedural genre, told with heart and humour”. Sharon Canavar, chief executive of Harrogate International Festivals, added that the debut is a “truly ground-breaking novel that changes the way we think about policing forever”.
Byline: David Barnett
A "boundary-pushing take on the police procedural" which features a human detective working with an AI sleuth in order to solve a missing persons case has won the coveted Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year award.
In the Blink of an Eye, the debut novel from author Jo Callaghan, was announced on Thursday night as the winner at the annual crime writing festival in Harrogate.
Midlands-born Callaghan, 54, said she was "genuinely shocked" to scoop the honour from a selection voted on by both a panel of experts and members of the public. Shortlisted authors included Mark Billingham, Lisa Jewell, Liz Nugent, William Hussey and Mick Herron.
In the Blink of an Eye follows recently bereaved police detective Kat Frank, who is partnered with an AI colleague named AIDE Lock, showing how the cold logic of computers can work with human intuition to crack cases. AIDE stands for "Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity".
Callaghan drew on both her professional and personal life to write the book. In her day job as a strategist, she considers what the workforce might look like in 10 to 15 years, and how AI will affect it.
More personally, in 2019, she lost her husband Steve to lung cancer, which helped her explore the bereavement experienced by her main character.
Callaghan began writing when her husband bought her a laptop on her 40th birthday and finally published In the Blink of an Eye when she was 53. She had written five books over the preceding 13 years, ranging from children's to young adult to fantasy, but none were published.
She told the Guardian she had the idea for the AI detective story in 2017 but, after Steve's diagnosis, had no time to write it. "What I did do was start writing a blog about what it felt like for him and me going through that experience, and a lot of people said, oh that's so beautiful, so powerful.
I realised I was writing better because I was writing from the heart
"I was just writing what I was feeling and thinking and ... I realised I was writing better because I was writing from the heart," she said. "When I wrote this book -- which was literally just to distract myself because I needed to keep busy for my two children, I needed to do something at night -- I think I just carried on writing in that vein, from the heart, whereas I think before I'd been writing with my telephone voice."
Even with her job predicting long-term trends involving AI, she was unprepared for just how topical the book would become. "I had no idea when I started writing that AI would enter the mainstream so quickly," she said. "I think everyone's been surprised by the speed at which things have developed in the last two years.
"I didn't even know if I wanted to get the book published when I finished it, after all the rejections with my earlier work. It had served its purpose, it had kept me alive, kept me going, so I thought anything else that happens is a bonus".
She reckoned the book might be too niche, "falling somewhere between crime and science fiction". In the end, it was bought by Simon & Schuster and published in January 2023, just as the AI tool ChatGPT was gaining prominence.
That March the book was selected for the Sara Cox-fronted BBC books show Between the Covers, and featured on the New Blood panel at the Theakston Old Peculier crime writing festival this time last year. "I had a little bit of luck," said Callaghan. "I just kept getting all these lifts, these little gusts of wind that kept it up."
This year Callaghan published Leave No Trace, the second book featuring Kat Frank and her AI partner. Callaghan anticipates a four-book series featuring the pair, and is currently working on edits to book three.
What are the limits to what can AI learn and what happens when it reaches that point?
"I don't see it as a 26-book crime series or something like that," she said. "The story arc is between Kat and Lock and asks the question: What are the limits to what can AI learn and what happens when it reaches that point? I think there has to be an answer to that, and a resolution, and that's what I'm aiming for."
At the awards ceremony on Thursday night, hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson, Callaghan received a £3,000 prize and an engraved beer cask made by one of Britain's last coopers.
Earlier this year, the awards were criticised because the longlist for best novel did not feature any books by writers of colour. "Given that the festival had to issue an apology in 2021 for failing somehow to invite any female author of colour to participate on any panel, one might have thought they would have been more mindful," said barrister and crime novelist Harriet Tyce, who wrote to the prize's organisers to express her concerns. "There's just no excuse for it."
A spokesperson for the festival said at the time the organisers "actively seek to provide a platform for writers from all communities and encourage publishers to consider diversity in all our interactions, from submitting authors for the festival programme to entering them for the awards."
Also announced this week were the winners of the inaugural Val McDermid Debut award, named after the Scottish writer who co-founded the festival in 2003. It went to Marie Tierney for Deadly Animals, about a 13-year-old girl on the hunt for a serial killer. The outstanding achievement award was given to Martina Cole, famous for her gritty, female-centred books about London's underworld.
Simon Theakston, chairman of Theakston, said that In the Blink of An Eye is a "boundary-pushing take on the police procedural genre, told with heart and humour". Sharon Canavar, chief executive of Harrogate International Festivals, added that the debut is a "truly ground-breaking novel that changes the way we think about policing forever".
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Guardian Newspapers Limited
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Jo Callaghan wins crime novel of the year with story of an AI detective; In the Blink of an Eye was praised at the Theakston Old Peculier crime writing festival as 'changing the way we think about policing forever'." Guardian [London, England], 19 July 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A801950783/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9bd996c5. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
Callaghan, Jo LEAVE NO TRACE Random House (Fiction None) $18.00 1, 7 ISBN: 9780593736852
The second book in the British Midlands-set Kat and Lock series reteams what may be crime fiction's oddest couple, given that one half of the pair isn't even human.
A man has been found dead on Nuneaton's Mount Judd, his nude body tied to a cross and his ears cut off. To identify the victim and solve the crime, the Warwickshire police force's DCS Kat Frank once again partners with Artificially Intelligent Detecting Entity Lock, the world's first AI detective, who takes the form of a 3-D holographic image of a 30-something Black man. According to Professor Adaiba Okonedo--the Black scientist who created Lock and whose personal experience with racism has left her wary of cops--the idea is to use bias-free AI to "rebuild public trust and confidence in policing." Also good: In a matter of seconds, the AI detective can do things such as "cross-check the victim's facial characteristics, height and weight with all social media posts matching white men between twenty-five and forty in the Nuneaton area." To mystery readers not predisposed to reaching for tech thrillers, the premise may sound intimidatingly geeky, but once Callaghan establishes her terms, it's one fleet, accessible scene after another. For theStar Trek savvy, conversations between Kat and her literal-minded partner may recall exchanges with Mr. Spock (Lock: "Your entire theory is built upon nothing but your imagination"; Kat: "It's calledempathy, Lock"). The novel's central question--should humans fear replacement by machines?--hums throughout, but never hinders the story's forward momentum, and the plot's big reveal is unlikely to be foreseen by even the AI-abetted reader.
This thriller may feature state-of-the-art AI, but its solid craftsmanship is timeless.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Callaghan, Jo: LEAVE NO TRACE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A813883737/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=893dca2b. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
Leave No Trace
Jo Callaghan. Random House, $18 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-593-73685-2
At the start of Callaghan's riveting sequel to Blink of an Lye, Warwickshire DCI Kat Frank and her partner, AIDE Lock--the world's first AI detective--have been solving cold cases in the British Midlands for a year. When the gruesomely disfigured body of 29-year-old Gary Jones turns up, his limbs splayed out to mimic crucifixion, it ignites a panic in the typically quiet community and hands Kat and Lock their first live case. Even with Kat's well-honed instincts and Lock's unflappable logic, the pair struggle to find worthwhile leads. Then another young man disappears from a pub after a night out, only to be found in a grisly tableau that echoes Jones's. Relentless local reporter Ellie Baxter and frenzied online speculation about the murders increase pressure on Kat and Lock to stop the killer before a third victim--possibly their colleague Rayan Hassan, as Kat fears--is murdered. Callaghan tweaks the traditional British detective story just enough, freshening up a well-worn formula without attempting to fix what isn't broken. This series deserves a long life. Agent; Brandi Bowles, UTA. (Jan.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Leave No Trace." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 45, 25 Nov. 2024, p. 37. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A818519067/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f1aac131. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan
January 2nd, 2025 Kimberly Review 10 Comments
2ndJan
Two detectives: one human, one AI. And a case that will test them both. How could I resist listening to this crime thriller, especially when I learned that the next audiobook releases January 7, 2025. Narrated by Paul Mendez & Rose Akroyd, In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan, pulled me into the story as the team investigates two cold cases.
In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan
In the Blink of an Eye
by Jo Callaghan
Series: Kat and Lock #1
Narrator: Paul Mendez, Rose Akroyd
Length: 10 hours and 7 minutes
Genres: Thriller
Source: Publisher
Purchase*: Amazon | Audible *affiliate
Goodreads
Rating: One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Narration: 4.5 cups Speed: 1.45x
Winner of the Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasy New Blood Dagger Award and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year
Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her intuition, honed through years of on-the-beat police work. Picked to lead a pilot program that has her paired with Lock, an AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity)—a hologram that is activated by a device on Kat’s wrist—Kat’s gut reactions about people and motives come up against Lock’s statistical calculations and data analysis that can be devised in seconds.
But as the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help when the case begins to target Kat personally. AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line, can the pair work together to solve the mystery in time?
A dazzling debut from an exciting new voice, In the Blink of an Eye asks us what we think it means to be human.
Law mystery scifi thriller
In the Blink of an Eye, delivered a compelling mystery while exploring human intuition versus artificial intelligence. What unfolded was a tight, gripping tale I devoured.
We meet Detective Chief Superintendent Kat Frank, a recently widowed woman in her mid-forties with a teenage son. She has just returned to work and her boss makes her lead on a pilot program. She will work with a team that includes an AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detecting Entity). Like, Kat, I was skeptical. The team is assigned to cold cases, and the first order of business is selecting which case to start with.
The team consists of Aide Locke (the AIDE). Locke is worn on a band around Kat’s wrist, but he can also project a human-looking hologram. Aide’s hologram resembles a tall, slim black man. Next up we have, Detective Inspector Rayan Hassan. Rayan, has a high close rate and immediately challenges everything Kat says. Then we have Detective Sergeant Debbie Browne. Even with six-years experience, Debbie lacks self-esteem. While not an official member of the team, AIDE’s handler Professor Okonedo, holds a grudge against the police and thinks AIDE is better suited to solve crimes.
I loved the science fiction aspect, but fear not, this falls solidly in the crime thriller category. The cold case is an intriguing one. Two men mysteriously go missing without a trace. As the team works to locate these men, things take a turn when they realize they have stumbled on to an active abduction case. I was all in and loved bearing witness as the detectives gathered clues and wove together the case.
This was my first time with author Jo Callaghan. I appreciated this tightly woven crime thriller and how she develops these characters and their lives in and out of the precinct. I was invested not only in solving the crimes, but with the characters themselves. The next audiobook, Leave No Trace, releases in January 2025 and will have the team dealing with a murder. While each book will probably work as a standalone, I recommend listening in order as the dynamics of the team develop.
If you love a good police procedural, you’ll want to add the Kat & Locke series to your 2025 listens!
Paul Mendez & Rose Akroyd narrate and gave voice to Kat, Locke and the rest of the team. I thought they worked well together and appreciated everything from their accents to tone. I highly recommend listening.
Amazon | Audible
About Jo Callaghan
Jo Callaghan
Jo works full-time as a senior strategist, where she has carried out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019, she started writing In The Blink of An Eye. She lives with her two children in the Midlands, where she is currently writing the third novel in the Kat and Lock series.
In The Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan
December 2, 2024by Jen Lucas
Today I am resharing my review of In The Blink Of An Eye by Jo Callaghan. I’m really looking forward to book three, Human Remains, which is out on April 24th, and what better way to get ready than looking back on the earlier books in the series. Thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be a part of this blogathon celebration. Here’s what it’s all about:
Source: Owned Copy
Release Date: 04 January 2024 (paperback)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
About the Book
In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds.
Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye.
DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic. But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.
AI versus human experience.
Logic versus instinct.
With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?
In the Blink of an Eye is a dazzling debut from an exciting new voice and asks us what we think it means to be human.
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My Thoughts
I’m very late in reading this book, particularly as I’ve had it on my TBR for so long, but I’m very glad I’ve now caught up as it was a brilliant story with a truly fascinating premise, and blended the thrills, mystery and humour in a way that I loved. This is the story of DCS Kat Frank who is returning to work after the recent loss of her husband. Her grief is palpable, as is her guilt, and it adds an extra edge to her determination to get back to work and prove that she still has what it takes to do her role. Part of the terms of her return are the very heart of this book and what makes it so original. Kat is requested to work alongside a new trial ‘Detective’, an initiative being pushed very heavily by Government and something that cannot be refused. Enter AIDE Lock, an AI Detective whose logic and speed is the near perfect match for Kat’s gut instinct.
Kat and Lock are a strange pair – very different for some very obvious reasons, but beautifully paired exactly because of these differences. Kat is an old school Detective, driven by instinct and years of knowing the streets she has to police. Lock is powered by hundreds of millions of case notes and internet entries and an ability to digest all of that data in the blink of an eye. What he lacks is empathy, something that Kat has in abundance, and this can lead to some inappropriately humorous moments, as well as some very tense reactions from Kat. The wider team – Lock’s programmer, Professor Okonedo, DI Rayan Hassan, and DS Debbie Browne – are all very unique characters, who add a real sense of authenticity and texture to the book. The more we get to learn about them, the easier they are to like as all have incidents in their past who inform who they are today, and each backstory really adds to the emotion of the book itself. I actually love how Kat plays with the characters at the start, challenging the status quo and hierarchical and gender roles, and giving us a clear view of how this team is going to work.
The team are placed in charge of investigating cold missing persons cases. Lock uses his logic and data to determine whose case they should choose. Kat uses her instinct. This is just the first of many disagreements between the pair, but as it becomes very clear that some of the cases might be linked, they start to work together, although not without the moments of conflict as you might expect. Lock is sometimes blunt and careless in language as he doesn’t understand emotion, however the constant stimuli of working in the field allows him to reset his boundaries on occasion. He is also very literal which can lead to some interesting moments between him and Kat. I really liked them as a pairing, loved the way the author explores that relationship and the changing of attitudes as the case progresses. I’m not sure how I’d feel about working along side AI, but it certainly seems to take some of the strain out of the legwork, an example being Lock’s ability to review hours of CCTV footage in just seconds. That’s got to help.
The case itself is as intriguing as the new partnership between Lock and Kat, and at times quote chilling. There are moments which kind of make the skin crawl, and I certainly didn’t see that conclusion coming. It’s not one of those completely out of left field resolutions that leaves you feeling cheated, more one that makes me want to read the book again to see if I could have ‘made’ the perpetrator any earlier. Nevermind the blink of an eye, the author employs a very deft sleight of hand here, and it works perfectly. There are clues you can pick up on, and links that can be made fairly quickly given what we as readers know verses what the Detectives are able to uncover, but the who and the why … yikes. Scary prospect indeed and made for some very compelling reading.
I’m really glad this is not a standalone book and I am looking forward to reading the second book a bit later this year. If you like an original story with great characters and an ending you literally won’t expect, this could be the book for you. Don’t be put off by the idea of an AI Detective. this is far from science fiction, it is all Detective fiction, just served with a side order of technology. Kat Frank and AIDE Lock and the team are characters I’m really looking forward to meeting again. Highly recommended.
About the Author
Jo Callaghan works full time as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce. She was a student of the Writers’ Academy Course (Penguin Random House) and was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Writing Competition and Bath Novel Competition. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019 when she was just forty-nine, she started writing In the Blink of an Eye, her debut crime novel, which explores learning to live with loss and what it means to be human. She lives with her two children in the Midlands, where she spends far too much time tweeting as @JoCallaghanKat and is currently working on further novels in the series.