In The Blink of An Eye: Winner of the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA New Blood Dagger

From the moment I started reading In The Blink of an Eye I couldn't put it down. Absolutely smashing. Scary, comic, perceptive, provoking.

DCS Kat Frank is recently widowed and now a single mum to eighteen year old Cam and on her return to work she is asked to take part in a pilot scheme where she will be working with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock and, naturally, she is rather sceptical about the whole AI versus human detectives idea as she is all about gut feelings and instinct and Lock uses fact and logic but she agrees to do it and she, and her team, embark on reviewing two missing persons cold cases. There are many clashes along the way between the two of them, but when something happens that affects Kat personally, Lock is the only one there for her.In the Blink of an Eye is the first in the Kat and Lock police procedural series by this author and her debut novel, but it’s so well written you wouldn’t believe it was her first one. This story highlights how it would be if our police force were to start working with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and let’s face it, technology is moving on so fast now, who knows what will happen in the future! I particularly liked the ‘relationship’ that developed between Kat and Lock and am looking forward to seeing how that progresses in book two. I bought this book last year and when I saw that the second book was being released I wanted to read them in order and I’m glad I did because I got a feel for the characters and how their story began, which I wouldn’t have got if I’d read them out of order. This is a great read, an intriguing plot with interesting characters that I’m looking forward to getting to know more about next time.

For someone who likes both science fiction and contemporary British police procedural novels, this is a gift. It features Detective Chief Superintendent Kat Frank - a senior police officer with even more baggage than is traditional for fictional detectives - being paired up with an AI detective called Lock in a trial to see if AI can aid detection. As it is a trial, they work on something well beneath the pay grade of a real DCS - missing person cold cases.Jo Callaghan produces an excellent page turner of a mystery novel which would have worked without the science fiction element, but is really brought to the next level by the addition of Lock. Of itself, adding AI to police work is lab lit (i.e. perfectly possible with today's technology), but Lock is something else. In her acknowledgements, Callaghan says 'With the exception of Lock's real-time conversational abilities, many aspects of AI described in the book either exist now or are on the horizon' - this is stretching things in a big way. I'll come back to that later for purists, but it's not at all a problem for the reader unless you don't accept that this is science fiction.Of course, the concept of putting an AI detective alongside a human partner is nothing new. One thing reading this book has made me realise is that I need to re-read Asimov's 1953 novel The Caves of Steel, which features a (far future) detective Elijah Bailey who is teamed up with the robotic detective R. Daneel Olivaw. Just like Bailey, in Callaghan's book Frank doesn't trust the AI and doesn't want to work with it - but in both cases they come to grudging mutual respect. Another parallel, which I think Callaghan could have made more of, is Data in Star Trek TNG. What makes Data so entertaining is the opportunity for humour in misunderstanding between the AI and the humans. Callaghan has a sequel on the way - I hope she can make a bit more of this aspect, which only comes out right at the end of the current book.The big difference between the predecessors and Lock is that Lock is not a robot. He is pure software, but is able to project a totally lifelike 3D image, both of 'himself' (in various avatars) and of people who feature in the case, 3D data presentations and more. This allows for more of the kind of interactions that happen with the robots in the two predecessors mentioned than would have been the case if Lock had been a totally disembodied program.This feature also takes us into the reason why, in reality, Lock is way beyond current technology. The idea of being able to project lifelike 3D images into thin air (especially from a bracelet, as is the case here) is not conceivable with any current technology. Early on, Callaghan has her irritating young AI professor gets things distinctly wrong in explaining the broad capability AGI (artificial general intelligence) that Lock has, effectively saying all you need to go from narrow AI to AGI is deep learning - which is actually what you need for good narrow AI such as large language models. It doesn't enable the human-like AGI we see here. So a degree of SF is required to make this feasible too. What the book does do, secondarily to the enjoyability as a straight SF story, is make you think about the opportunities for AI in policing - for example in checking many hours of CCTV or social media posts. This kind of thing is where Lock does very convincingly help the human team. The only proviso here is that, again, it's still in the realms of science fiction to think that the mobile data speeds portrayed - and the processing power at the server end - would be anything like practical in the near future. It's possible to imagine an AI like Lock that could watch a movie in seconds, or trawl through terabytes of data at high speed - but real world servers aren't going to pump out data fast enough, and even 5G would be way too slow to enable Lock to function (you certainly couldn't cram his capabilities into a bracelet) - not to mention that at the moment I'm lucky to get 4G in many locations.Overall, there's a good balance here between the SF and mystery aspects (though there is a very predictable plot twist near the end). I enjoyed the book and the 5 stars is well-earned, despite the attempt to pretend it isn't science fiction. I'm looking forward to the sequel, particularly if we can see more of the potential for entertaining interplay between Frank and Lock. Good stuff.

Ooooh this book was fantastic! I don’t know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn’t what I got… what I got, was so much more! I actually don’t really know what to say other than I loved it! The storyline was so unique and intriguing. I loved the chapters from the POV of the mysterious person that was held captive and Kat was a brilliant FMC.Did I see that big twist coming!? Did I nothing! I had suspicions early on and thought I had it figured out quite easily but I was so, so wrong! A brilliantly clever twist that was!The end of the book was very heart warming and I felt quite emotional for Kat and then reading the acknowledgments at the end and how Jo has been through similar. What a strong and inspirational woman!Looking forward to moving straight into book 2 “Leave No Trace” and finding out what comes next for Kat and Lock!

Loved this book! It’s highly paced with endearing characters, even the AI. The story just flows and I didn’t want it to end.No spoilers, but definitely a book to read. Don’t hesitate. Just go and buy it already and enjoy!

Thoroughly enjoyed the story. Shows how we can use AI in a positive and meaningful manner. Well written and an easy and interesting read.

Nice plot idea, the story is stretched and a bit forced in parts, but overall good for summer reading

A very interesting premise as AI is among us and we still haven't understood the extent of its capability. A very personal connection for me as I am a widow & lost my husband to cancer.

I could really relate to Kat, all the characters were well developed, even Lock. Tightly written with the obligatory twists and red herrings. I had guessed the surviving boy correctly and knew who the next victim would be, but the guilty parties were a surprise.