Essentially In the Blink of an Eye is a police procedural, Kat and her squad conduct interviews, investigate clues and gather evidence to explain the fate of the missing men. 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. Linda’s Book Bag readers should note that they may unsubscribe at any point from following the blog. Lock is the counter to Kat, he feeds are information, is able to analyse objectively and Kat can use that information to look at how it would be dealt with by fellow humans, softened or manipulated where necessary. During their meeting, McLeish informs her that he wants her to lead a pilot group working with AIDEs (Artificially Intelligent Detecting Entities) to solve cold cases.

She believes in gut instinct, experience and being able to read people's emotions which is everything the AI Lock can't do and is only programmed to work on logic and facts. The plot was so intriguing and the characters are very interesting, I do hope there is more to come with Kat. With input from her small handpicked team, consisting of DI Ryan Hassan and DS Debbie Browne, along with AIDE Lock, who presents as a lifelike hologram with the default appearance is as a fairly nondescript 6ft tall white male, and Professor Okonedo as an observer, Kat selects two missing person cold cases for them to review.However, for Kat it becomes personal as she starts to see parallels between the missing young men and her own son Cam.

If AIDE is our future, and let’s face it, it more than likely is, because we’re well on the way there, then it’s a troubling thought. Have just finished reading the acknowledgements, not something that I do very often in books and I’m in tears. Lock is used to demonstrate the shortfalls of humans in general such as the fact we often make judgements based on emotions and personal experiences rather than evidence. I loved the AI-angle and it was so well executed, shining light on dilemmas with AI in a easy to grasp way where you saw the pitfalls at the same time as the potential for AI.

This is a really good crime novel and one that makes you think about how the world is changing and the impact that AI can have on it.

I am hoping for the latter as I loved Kat as well as getting to know the team and would be great to see more of them. Lock’s features resemble those of Chad Botwick, I thought that was a cute tribute to the late actor. k.a a robot, as part of the Home Secretary’s latest pet project to improve and advance policing, and minimise bias and prejudice.

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 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. With its different image settings and ethnicities Lock can transform into a 3D hologram of a human, a visual experience that I imagine would be quite astonishing. 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.