Jo Callaghan

I rarely pay full price for a book on a release day, and the risk doesn't always pay off, but I couldn't resist the second AIDE Lock novel from Jo Callaghan! It might be that I'm the 80s child who watched Knight Rider (and still do, if given the chance) but I absolutely love the concept of an AI 'detective entity', who appears in the form of a hologram, being paired with the all too human DSC Kat Frank. And the author always gets everything so right - the characters feel natural, the dialogue flows, the investigation is always well paced and suitably dramatic. Well worth £8.99!

In the second instalment, Kat petitions her boss for a 'live' case to test the human/AI partnership and receives a blinder - two crucified bodies left out in the December cold with key mutilations to the ears and eyes. Who could have wanted the two men to suffer and what message is the killer sending? I'm always content to go along for the ride with detective fiction, but felt that the killer was a little too front and centre, or that could just be in retrospect!

What I was really reading for, however, was the developing relationship between Kat and Lock, and how he's really growing and learning by example - I love his innocent questions about when sarcasm is allowed and his subtle humour, but also his obvious emotion about being at a disadvantage because of his holographic persona (the horses, bless him!) KITT would be proud! The debate over whether Lock is an 'it', as Kat insists (also very Knight Rider) or a 'he', and whether Kat should ask before deactivating the hologram that is powered by a wristband she wears, was also very interesting.

Can't wait for more from the team!… (mais)

Leave No Trace is the much anticipated follow-up to last year's big hit, In the Blink of an Eye. I've been looking forward to this sequel so much and I was not at all disappointed.

There was a brief moment when I started reading Leave No Trace when I wondered if it might not quite hit the spot in the way that the first book did. After all, In the Blink of an Eye was so unique that I thought it would be hard to replicate that feeling. I can now say categorically that this book is as good as the first book and I really struggled to put it down.

The unusual crime-fighting duo of DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock are back, along with the rest of the team (Rayan, Browne) and a couple of new additions (Karen-from-Comms and Dr Edwards, the pathologist). For those who don't know, AIDE Lock is an AI detective in hologram form, capable of digesting huge amounts of data in a few minutes, and providing information that would take a human hours, if not days, to gather and assess. Jo Callaghan uses her own research into AI to give a balanced and nuanced view of just how useful it can be in crime-solving. I always have to smile when Lock takes things that humans say really literally and Kat finds it quite frustrating at times. I also like how Callaghan portrays Lock as a machine but one who is all the time gaining a greater understanding of what it is to be human.

The story in Leave No Trace is absolutely gripping as a man is found crucified and then another body is found. Is a serial killer on the loose? To stop a third death the team really are up against it and towards the end it was so fast-paced I wanted to be reading it all the time.

Given the ending, I'm hoping there is a book three on the way. I really loved Leave No Trace which thrilled me, chilled me, made me smile and provided a thoroughly immersive reading experience.… (mais)

This was very good. Kat is asked to lead a pilot scheme to see whether an AI aide can help the police with investigations. I don't know enough about AI to tell whether what is depicted here is realistic and likely to be rolling out in police forces any time soon, but (other than Lock's need to appear as a hologram) I found it reasonably convincing. There were interesting points made about bias, assumptions and hunches.

The actual plot was a pacey police procedural as Kat's team look into two missing persons cases which (surprise surprise) turn out to be linked. I hope there will be more in this series.… (mais)

First five star (fiction) read of the year! I don't know if I just had a feeling about Jo Callaghan's novel, or if my childhood nostalgia for Knight Rider was the motivation, but I threw my usual Yorkshire superstition about not paying full price for books and downloaded the Kindle copy on the first day. And I'm glad I did, because the cliché came true - I could not put this book down (even the author's afterword made me cry!)

Newly returned to work after a personal tragedy, DCS Kat Frank is selected to lead a pilot programme pairing the police with artificial intelligence, namely AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock. Kat, Lock and two junior detectives, Hassan and Browne, are assigned to investigate missing persons 'cold cases' as a test of computer logic and speed against human empathy and intuition, but soon find themselves caught up in a medical conspiracy that has personal consequences for Kat.

From the moment Lock started snarking about human limitations, I was hooked. 'He' - although, in the time honoured tradition, Kat will only refer to her new 'partner' as 'it' - communicates and monitors Kat through a band on her wrist but also appears in the form of a hologram, programmed by his creator Dr Okonedo in honour of the late actor Chadwick Boseman, to form a connection with his human colleagues. Lock is programmed to learn through observation and experience but of course he's very blunt and coldly rational, against Kat's professional 'gut instinct' and compassion for the families of the missing boys they are investigating. He is all about evidence and statistics, whereas she has learned not to generalise and to focus on the case at hand. And where Lock is fresh out of the box, so to speak, Kat is weighed down with professional duty and personal cares, mainly her teenage son Cam. A familiar detective 'odd couple', but brought vividly to life by the police procedurals and details about everyday life. I don't usually read detective novels but the investigation was equally engaging as the characters.

I also loved the concept of creating an AI police presence too, and theoretically balancing the recognised failings of an organisation that is a microcosm of the society its officers are supposed to protect. As Okonedo explains: 'I believe in justice, democracy and the rule of law. I just think the policing of humans is too important to be left to humans.' Of course, she is prejudiced by personal experience, as nearly everyone on Kat's team seems to be! And both Lock and Kat demonstrate that the police can also make a positive contribution, while learning faster about humanity's failings than a computer program can.

'And yet, the human-centric premise of these films and much of your scientific literature is that it must be the ultimate ambition of androids or AI to become human, to be at the mercy of your irrational thought processes and emotions.'

Kat was frustrating at times, although believable and sympathetic, but I fell in love with Lock! (I can never resist a smug AI.) His attempt to 'fit in' with Kat and her son at home, pretending to sit on the couch and watch Terminator 2 with his feet on the coffee table, was wonderfully endearing, and I loved his constant reminders that he is in fact a computer and can watch films and sift through social media in a fraction of a second.

I hope now that Kat has worked through her pronoun protest and finally stopped telling Lock to STFU that there will be further cases for the futuristic detective duo to investigate!… (mais)