In the Blink of an Eye

A Novel

By: Jo Callaghan

Narrated by: Paul Mendez, Rose Akroyd

SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • Two detectives: one human, one AI. And a case that will test them both.

“Wildly original, heartfelt, funny, and properly thrilling, this is the kind of fresh and fearless debut I just adore.”—Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colors of the Dark, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick

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.

NOMINATED: Capital Crime’s Overall Crime Book of the Year; Crimefest’s Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award

©2024 Jo Callaghan (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A highly topical yet deeply poignant examination of loss and grief, told with dark humour.”—The Daily Express

“A genuinely different take on the police procedural genre is hard to find, but Jo Callaghan has done it. DCS Kat Frank isn’t keen when she’s assigned an AI (Artificial Intelligence) as her partner as part of a pilot scheme, but she quickly finds their dynamic unearths fresh evidence in a case.”—Good Housekeeping

“Callaghan grounds her novel in real life, challenging her unusual team to investigate the unsolved disappearances of two students. The moral dilemmas created by artificial intelligence are brilliantly explored in this altogether very human novel.”—Sunday Times

Excellent Police Procedural with a Side of AI

The pairing of a skeptical human detective with an AI partner in a police procedural is hardly a revelation. However, the author writes an EXCELLENT mystery--with an AI partner....not a heavy (boring) science-fiction novel with a dab of a poor mystery added in. What emerges from the effort is a clever and well-paced mystery with a really good ending and characters you want to hear about. I'd say that it appears this may be the first in a series--I hope so. Finally, kudos to the narrators...really a first rate performance.

An interesting take on AI

An interesting and fair take on a future AI assistant in law enforcement. I loved the premise, and the delivery was great and quite even handed, I will definitely buy the next in the series, if there is one.

Ai Locke has learned

The depiction of Ai Locke was very creative. The plot was suspenseful .
This book will become a spectacular movie with special effects to bring Ai Locke "alive"!

So glad this is a series

I had mixed emotions about spending a credit on this book. Good reviews helped me decide to give it a chance. I loved it! Very rarely do I listen non-stop to a book, I almost finished it in two days. I decided not to listen in the car as I definitely would have been distracted, it was that good. Great Narration.

Clever debut!

Winner of the Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasy New Blood Dagger Award and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year

I found author Jo Callaghan’s debut “In a Blink of an Eye” riveting. I am enjoying authors who are including Artificial Intelligence in their genre, in this case, the thriller/police procedural genre.

Lock, an AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) is a hologram created by a university professor as an aid to the police force. The idea is that AI can compute statistic, scan evidence, compute complex statistics in seconds while it could take a human 50 hours of work. Furthermore, the professor who created it wanted to take out human bias judgements. The professor wanted all logic in police work, not the hidden biases to be involved. Lock is part of a pilot program which Kat Frank, a successful policewoman, is designated to lead. She’s not thrilled, as she believes her success has been because of her “gut”, her intuition. Additionally, Kat just lost her husband to cancer, an AI misdiagnosis. (I didn’t know that the medical community is using AI!) She leery that Lock will be a thorn in her side. Reluctantly, she agrees to be part of the program.

Her mandate is to find two missing young men, both in their later teens. When the team meets, including Lock, (who is made in the image of the actor Chadwick Boseman) Kat is annoyed and impressed in equal measure. Lock knocked out the stats involving missing boys in seconds. He can do more than that as well. He can upload pictures and produce them on a wall. He’s an efficient tool. He also challenges her embedded biases which she finds frustrating. She refers to Lock as “it”, as she refuses to acknowledge his “male” hologram.

Callaghan adds humor to her story. For example, Lock ponders why humans want to make AI more “humanlike” when really humans should be wanting to be more AI-like. He can watch a movie in 5 seconds, which includes a review and analysis. Why waste time being human? These are smile worthy moments, not chuckle, but necessary nonetheless because the plot is stressful: find the two missing boys before they find them dead.

Suspense is added when Callaghan includes short chapters involving someone in a hospital bed. Those are chilling chapters. The chapters are narrated by a male voice.

I listened to the audio narrated by Paul Mendez and Rose Akroyd. I couldn’t wait to get back to my audio. Highly recommend.

Fantastic!

Loved the AI storyline. Very well done! Was excited to learn that this will be a series and I don’t have to say goodbye to this lovely detective duo!