About this deal
Her boss, Chief Constable McLeish has her head up a pilot project working alongside an Artificial Intelligence Detecting Entity (AIDE) named Lock, who appears as a hologram, very much a character and personality in his own right, the brainchild of Warwick University's Professor Okonedo, a woman with her own agenda. But since one of my favourite shows on television at the moment is Quantum Leap - where, during a government experiment into time travel, a scientist finds himself "leaping" into the lives of different people, sorting out their problems and changing history in hopes of getting back home to the present - maybe I should revise the sci-fi standing.
However, there is a reason for her antagonism which when revealed, adds another depth to Kat’s character.The story also explores love, loss and grief and the impact of bereavement on different characters in the book, again beautifully written and depicted.
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.The reader is pulled along with the narrative, eager for Kat and her team to find the clues, ones which are left by the author for the reader to find and follow before the detectives get there. 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. Such an original concept and so brilliantly executed, but also a story to make you think, and one that throws up unexpected questions about life, grief, loss, and the human mind . This has to be a strong contender for crime debut of the year - sharp, perceptive writing and a brilliant new take on the detective duo' T.