Every now and then, in between the larger, more complex reads, I want to pick something up that’s a little more down to earth yet has still received enough praise that I know I’m very much going to enjoy it. In The Blink of an Eye by Joe Callaghan was the perfect book for this at the time. It’s a police book where they introduce a futuristic AI model to help out with cases and everyone’s rightfully sceptical – right up my street!
This article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any products via the links below, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product.
DCS Kat Frank is returning to the police after the loss of her husband. She’s been gone some time and was rather senior, so to ease her back in, rather than giving her any large workload, she’s asked to lead up a program assessing the implementation of a new AI program that’s being considered for implementation within the police.
In The Blink of an Eye plot – 4.25/5
Essentially, DCS Kat Frank is put in charge of trying to solve some cold cases (cases that were never solved) with Locke. The first half of the plot if In The Blink of an Eye is fairly predictable – a police officer who’s been around the block has new technology introduced at work and is incredibly sceptical and trying her very best to see the negative in everything it does. This is the story between Frank and Locke (the AI) as they battle it out between showing old-school policing and being a human to be advantageous and the positives of being AI.
This I found fairly predictable; however, there’s a moment around halfway through that throws everything up in the air and left me questioning where everything was going to go next, which is when the book really began to peak my interest.
This sudden twist added a much faster-pace to a plot where, in all honesty, I felt like it was going through a lot of motions and nothing was really surprising me.
In The Blink of an Eye characters – 4.25/5
In a similar vein to the reference to predictability previously, I felt like I could guess the exact dynamic that was going to happen between Frank and Locke before it happened. She was the cliché uptight senior police officer facing off against this new technology that she believed could well take away her job and Locke was this new revolutionary computer that had its advantages but also logical disadvantages of not being human.
This created a dynamic where the AI shows the advantages of having the vast breadth and speed of a computer against the genuine emotion, delicacy and intricacies that make us human. However, as I mentioned with the plot, there are some deeper and better analysed moments later on that force you to think of things slightly differently.
I enjoyed the progression of the interactions between Frank and Locke and other characters supporting too. Additionally, as mentioned in my plot review, there’s a moment about halfway through where things switch up and I think this is where the characters took another leap forward too.
No one is absolutely memorable, but a character dynamic smart enough to have me impressed.
In The Blink of an Eye final rating – 4.25/5
In The Blink of an Eye started out fairly predictably – we have an AI technology introduced into the police and a veteran police officer who’s used to “the old ways” isn’t so keen. However, despite a fairly cliché start, Callaghan does switch things up about halfway through and not only ramp up the character dynamics but also the pacing of the plot, resulting in a crime novel that stats off fairly slow but soon becomes one you find yourself quite invested in. if you have any interest in AI or technology, this may interest you but also expect to the find the first half of the book like every “new age robot gets introduced into a profession” sort of plot but hold out and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the change in pace.
Buy a copy of In The Blink of an Eye
