In The Blink of An Eye: A BBC Between the Covers Book Club Pick

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The introduction of AI into policing is an interesting concept and Callaghan offers both sides - seen through the characters' lenses but with balance. Kat and her boss are cynical about politicians' intention to cut resources / officers and replace them with technology not capable of nuance and intuition. Whereas the technology's creator is distrustful of police for those very 'human' reasons. DCS Kat Frank has been on extended leave from the police force due to the death of her husband. Kat & her teenage son, Cam, are adjusting to their new 'normal' although it has understandably not been easy. Cam had depression & anxiety, but he is now going out a lot more with his friends, whilst Kat is just trying to keep everything together. She is called in to head a new pilot scheme trialling the use of an AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) which can perform calculations & trawl through data at superspeed.

I would love to work with AI on a piece of fiction. We could share the royalties, and the AI money could fund more women to get involved in AI research and application. The real problem is not that AI is writing, or will write, or can write. The problem is who is writing the AI programs and designing the algorithms. Who is setting the terms of the research? Who is deciding what matters? Mainly men. That’s a problem because the world is not made up of mainly men.

It’s phenomenal . . . Perfect blend of police procedural and techno thriller and kept me guessing right to the end!’ Steph Broadribb

The introduction of AI into policing is an interesting concept and Callaghan offers both sides – seen through the characters’ lenses but with balance. Kat and her boss are cynical about politicians’ intention to cut resources / officers and replace them with technology not capable of nuance and intuition. Whereas the technology’s creator is distrustful of police for those very ‘human’ reasons.Fantastic character development, If you love a good police procedural, mystery with a bit of a twist in the dynamic of characters I really enjoyed this one. Really interesting insight to the future of policing, I’m not adverse to it, the time it would save and speed up the process in apprehending people for their crimes! The pilot scheme will start with cold cases; people who have disappeared over the years, with no leads. The whole process of choosing which missing persons to concentrate on is complex in itself, and as time moves on, it becomes clear that there's far more to these cases than originally thought. In your thank you section at the end of the book you list some of the people who helped your research with the technical data. There must have been some interesting discussions about the possibilities of using AI in police work that seem like Science fiction now? This has to be a strong contender for crime debut of the year - sharp, perceptive writing and a brilliant new take on the detective duo' T. M. Logan

Fabulous! A rare crime novel truly as much about character as it is about plot…cried at the ending…huge potential series exploring the human AI connection. Loved' Lindsay Galvin I started reading this morning and ten hours later I’ve finished it! It’s so, SO good – really properly compelling, impossible to put down – I was desperate for the solution to the mystery – but so human and moving and massively thought-provoking on what makes us human’ LAURA MARSHALL Callaghan also uses the investigations to showcase the stark difference that can exist between humanity and intelligence. Between understanding human nature and a dogged pursuit of logic.This brilliant debut had me gripped the whole way through. A refreshing and different take on the police procedural genre’ Prima What, then, is essentially human about the novel? My own answer has to do with the ways in which we unruly people rebel against forms, break them when they ask to be followed. It has to do with the ways people marry their own physical experiences of the world to texts that have been read for centuries and, in doing so, revise and alter them. I start there, but I’m still trying to figure out what it is that human beings bring to the work of writing a story. That feels like an important question, a question that should feel urgent to any person who loves to read. It’s a question that is made more urgent by LLMs. I’m grateful they exist to challenge us.