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

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

“The ideas in this first novel are fascinating and Kat’s slow discovery of what the technology can offer is accompanied by a scientific assessment of so-called gut instinct. The revelation of the full villainy involved in the two men’s disappearance is intriguing, but it is Kat—her personality, her relationship with her young son and her experience of loss—that really lifts this novel.”—The Literary Review

“The kind of fresh and fearless debut I just adore. Wildly original, heartfelt, funny, and properly thrilling. Take a bow, Jo Callaghan”—Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colors of the Dark and We Begin at the End

“The most original crime novel you’ll read this year.”—Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go and A Game of Lies

“With well-drawn characters, believable emotions and an interesting premise, you can see this becoming a TV series.”—The Independent

“One of the most original and modern police procedurals you’ll read . . . The results are astounding.”—Belfast Telegraph

“Original and compelling.”—Fabulous

“Just brilliant!”—Lisa Jewell, author of None of This Is True

“Terrifyingly timely and provocative.”—Val McDermid, author of 1989

Cool concept!

Like the characters and the AI storyline. I hope there will be more books set in this world!

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.

Great Story

I liked how it was a police procedural that was different than any I have ever read before. I also liked that it didn’t have any bloody or torture scenes that would normally be in these types of stories.

A good storyline

Holds your interest and I appreciated the opposing views of AI however not worth listening to twice.

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.