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

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The conflict inherent in Kat and Lock’s different approaches to investigation, and how each affects the case, is fascinating, with the strengths and weaknesses of both methods fairly illustrated. It had suspense while also being well-written and interesting also when there wasn’t so much going on.

He allows Kat to focus on her intuition, her instincts that are formed through years of experience and through human evolution. The purpose is to learn and evaluate the pros and cons of how AIDE's can support police work, with the worry that this might lead to cuts in police numbers. However, the powers that be are influenced by the very vocal local MP and Kat has no choice but to take this on. Each one has something to add to the story and each one has the potential to grow as the series develops.Kat's grief for her husband and her guilt for her teenage son were raw and emotional and it was so clear that Jo was writing this story from her heart. With well-drawn characters, believable emotions and an interesting premise, you can see this becoming a TV series. Because it looked like a human – and not only that, a handsome one – and add in the fact that it mirrored human body language, mannerisms, and facial expressions. I didn’t know what to think going into this book as I adore Detective thrillers / Police procedurals but I wasn’t so sure about the AI element but I shouldn’t have bothered worrying at all as this was just amazing from beginning to end.

Kat puts together a small team and with the assistance of Locke (who has no filters on his thoughts - LOL) they start to look into cold cases. The plot was so intriguing and the characters are very interesting, I do hope there is more to come with Kat. Their role is analysis of information and administrative tasks and they can do these 'in the blink of an eye'. 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.I work in cybersecurity and the industry is all about leveraging automation to replace tedious human tasks. The home secretary’s project to enhance police processes, analysing data faster and reducing prejudice among the force. My non technological brain fought against the very notion … however, the originality of the storyline, paired with brilliant writing, won me over.

Seeing this team work together with very little to go on it seems like a massive task but it isn’t long before they uncover little snippets of information that lead them down a path which I think any want to be crime solver would struggle to work out.Linda’s Book Bag readers should note that they may unsubscribe at any point from following the blog. The character of Lock is then introduced to the team, Lock is the the pivotal part of the AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) project.

Lock was a brilliant character in its own right and produced moments of humour with its honest and unfiltered comments and I actually became quite fond of it, (I had to remember to think of Lock as an ‘it’ and not a ‘him’ – not least because of its default hologram setting being a 6ft tall male).Following eighteen months on leave for personal family reasons, DCS Kat Frank is given a new team, and assigned to work cold cases. All the hallmarks on traditional police procedurals are very much in play: trawling CCTV, social media, and devices, as well as good ole face-to-face interviews. The main character was well-developed and the emotional impact of the story and relationships strong. The pacy, timed and dated chapters add to the sense of speed and excitement and, especially when the italicised chapters are interspersed, there’s a feeling of dread and menace that is all consuming. The story also explores love, loss and grief and the impact of bereavement on different characters in the book, again beautifully written and depicted.