Review: LEAVE NO TRACE, Jo Callaghan

• 
  This edition an e-book on Amazon (Kindle)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C9NG1YZX
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster UK (March 28, 2024)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 139851120X

Synopsis (publisher)

One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic.
It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear . . .

When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd, DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI detective – are thrust into the spotlight with their first live case.

But when they discover another man dead – also crucified – it appears that the killer is only just getting started. When the Future Policing Unit issues an extraordinary warning to local men to avoid drinking in pubs, being out alone late at night and going home with strangers, they face a hostile media frenzy. Whilst they desperately search for connections between the victims, time is running out for them to join the dots and prevent another death.

And if Kat and Lock know anything, it’s that killers rarely stop – until they are made to.

My Take

The first title in this series IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE introduced the concept of artificial intelligence being used to solve cold cases. Now DCS Kat Frank feels it is time to test AIDE Lock on a live case. She gets her wish when the body of a man is found crucified at a local recycling depot. 

Once again a well plotted fast moving story which illustrates how Lock's capacity for analysing data can speed up the processes of dealing with crime. However the team working with Lock is very human and the whole process of working together takes a lot of compromise and adjustment,

So this is partly police procedural, and partly thinking about what the face of future policing might look like. 

Don't start with this title though. Look for IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE to read first.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read 

4.8, IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, Jo Callaghan

Review: IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, Jo Callaghan

• 
  This edition available as an e-book on Kindle through Amazon
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09YFTR7M8
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster UK (January 19, 2023)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 415 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1398511161
• Winner of the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA New Blood Dagger

Synopsis (Amazon)

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?

In the Blink of an Eye is a dazzling debut from an exciting new voice and asks us what we think it means to be human. 

My Take:

I have just finished reading this book, and my mind is full of superlatives.

AI is in the process of penetrating our world and not every instance of it is bad. In fact we have been using AI for some time to process and interpret raw data in many beneficial ways. And clearly it can take over many tasks that currently take humans far too long. We just need to learn to trust the results.

So in a sense this novel is about how AI might be useful in crime detection and prevention, in how it might help resolve criminal activity more quickly, or even at all.

And in many ways AI is still in its infancy with many lessons to learn.

This book will give you a lot to think about. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.8

About the Author
Jo Callaghan works full time as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce. She was a student of the Writers’ Academy Course at Penguin Random House, and was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Writing Competition and Bath Novel Competition. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019 when she was just forty-nine, Callaghan started writing In the Blink of an Eye, her debut crime novel, which explores learning to live with loss and what it means to be human. Jo Callaghan lives with her two children in the British Midlands.