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

Product Information

Good fiction disturbs the comfortable. It does not continually buttress our existing views of ourselves and others. There may be no original thought in fiction, but it’s earthshaking stuff to follow along as a writer encounters the (to them) unknown. AI cannot do this; it maps only the known. The stakes are nonexistent. The kind of fresh and fearless debut I just adore. Wildly original, heartfelt, funny, and properly thrilling. Take a bow, Jo Callaghan' CHRIS WHITAKER It’s phenomenal . . . Perfect blend of police procedural and techno thriller and kept me guessing right to the end!’ Steph Broadribb

It's most certainly crime fiction, but there's an element of speculative fiction too, with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (or AI) used as a tool to help police investigations. It may sound a little far-fetched, but when we look around our world today, there's certainly the possibility that this could happen .... or maybe it already is??A very well put together and entertaining police drama. I highly recommend it. You will feel all the emotions. Jo works full-time as a senior strategist, where she has carried out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019, she started writing In The Blink of An Eye. She lives with her two children in the Midlands, where she is currently writing the second novel in the series. As a fiction writer, I know we should avoid apocalyptic thinking. The way we live is not a law, like gravity; it is propositional. We make it up as we go along. We can change the story because we are the story. This is freedom. It is also responsibility. What story shall we tell about who humans are? Warlike, violent, dishonest, wasteful? That’s part of us, certainly. It’s not the whole story – and I don’t want it to be the story that ends life on Earth. The last thing I am worrying about right now is whether AI will write better fiction than humans. I don’t care.

Daring and original, heartbreaking and heart-stopping, this study of what it means to be human is destined to not only be a big success, but a classic crime novel of our times. Loved it’ Caz Frear Kat’s just returning to work when we meet her. We soon learn she’d cared for her dying husband. I initially suspected he was a cop who died by some nefarious means, but it’s nothing like that. Less dramatic, if you like. But of course no less tragic. Eventually we may learn to design out bias and avoid perverse consequences, but will that be enough? As Prof Batya Friedman of the University of Washington’s information school has observed: “Justice is more than a right decision. It is a process of human beings witnessing for each other, recognising each other, accounting for each other, restoring each other.”

Table of Contents

Thrilling, thought-provoking and cinematic — a slam dunk for movie/TV adaptation' Alexandra Sokoloff, author of the Huntress Moon thrillers In the Blink of an Eye is fresh, innovative and very very clever. Flawlessly paced, plotted and researched, it’s laugh out loud, heart-achingly sad and doesn’t have a dull moment. I raced through it. Simply sensational' M. W. CRAVEN It’s phenomenal . . . Perfect blend of police procedural and techno thriller and kept me guessing right to the end!’ STEPH BROADRIBB Thrilling, thought-provoking and cinematic — a slam dunk for movie/TV adaptation' Alexandra Sokoloff, author of the Huntress Moon thrillers DSC Kat Frank, newly returned from bereavement leave, is unhappy when her boss directs her to lead a pilot program to test the suitability of using an AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) in a police investigation. Professor Okonedo, determined to better the operation of the force, asserts that the AIDE is not only capable of collating and analysing vast amounts of data in a fraction of the time required by a human, but has been programmed to filter out the bias and prejudice that can taint investigations. Kat doesn’t believe algorithms can truly account for the vagaries of humankind, or replace the experience and instincts she, like most good police officers, often rely on.

Kat is a complex character, the author has depicted a grieving widow who is trying her best to get on with life so very well. She's often outspoken, but she is always determined to get to the bottom of issues. This can cause so much tension at times, but it keeps the story flowing very well. I had theories on where this one was going, but I was so wrong. I’m not giving anything away. It’s a great read.The question of whether and how well programs like ChatGPT can (or will) write novels is most interesting, to me, in that it leads to questions about what a novel should be. Reading has always been a bridge, a way of knowing that in the vast expanse of human existence, our joys and sorrows, fears and hopes are shared. But how does one reconcile this when the bridge is built by algorithms and code? While literature’s most extraordinary gift may be its ability to awaken empathy, it’s a curious endeavour to try to connect, to really feel, for something fundamentally unfeeling. 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.