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

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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. One of the best new crime partnerships to emerge in fiction' Simon Bewick, Bay Tales Festival, Virtual Noir at the Bar. Now I don’t normally listen to the hype but the premise of the book sounded very intriguing; an Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity teaming up with a seasoned DCS to review cold cases sounds like science fiction but I’ve been to see ABBA Voyage 3 times in the past few months and seen how technology is evolving so in my mind “anything is possible”. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item.

There are moments which kind of make the skin crawl, and I certainly didn’t see that conclusion coming. I'm looking forward to the sequel, particularly if we can see more of the potential for entertaining interplay between Frank and Lock. The conflict inherent in Kat and Lock’s different approaches to investigation, and how each affects the case, is fascinating, with the strengths and weaknesses of both methods fairly illustrated.

I’m very late in reading this book, particularly as I’ve had it on my TBR for so long, but I’m very glad I’ve now caught up as it was a brilliant story with a truly fascinating premise, and blended the thrills, mystery and humour in a way that I loved. Even Kat’s selection of her team members reflects personalities and individual traits rather than just their experience and expertise.

I had serious FOMO when I saw all the proofs and reviews and I had to get myself a copy once it had been published.Kat and Lock are a strange pair – very different for some very obvious reasons, but beautifully paired exactly because of these differences. I bought this book expecting exactly that, but even when none of it came, it was a great experience, and I learned a LOT. It would also be of interest to anyone keen on film history, as a large amount of the book is devoted to the movement from film to digital and its affects on the craft. It’s a fascinating premise given all the debate about AI and its applications in industry so an AI ‘Detective’ is a really interesting idea. If In the Blink of an Eye was to be distilled to its essence, the 'original ideas' would take no more space than one and a half pages.