Esther Chilton

My partner, who is also a writer, was on an author panel at a writing event last year, with a new author called Jo Callahan. Whenever he’s on a panel, he always reads the other authors’ books. When it came to reading Jo’s, he couldn’t put it down and urged me to read it. I read the blurb and couldn’t wait to read the book. Here’s the blurb:

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? 

I’m sure you can now see why I wanted to read it.

My review:

The concept is such an interesting one. We keep hearing that AI will take over the world, and even that writers will no longer be needed one day as tools like ChatGPT become more and more sophisticated. I disagree with that, as writing comes from within; it’s something a writer has to do. But it does scare me. I’ve read about AI being used in healthcare to diagnose patients and now, in this book, albeit fiction, it’s being suggested AI can be used to help solve crimes. I was intrigued to know more and how it would work.

I’m not going to give anything away here as to how it worked, or the outcome, but I do thoroughly recommend this book. It’s different, gripping and I loved the characters.

It’s part of a series and I’m fortunate to be going to an author talk in February, which includes Jo, who is celebrating the launch of book 2 in paperback. So I’ll definitely be buying that.