Firstly I really liked the characters in this book who were on the whole a very likeable bunch and not your average stereotypical detectives. I like that they all seemed to actually like each other and it was good to see each of them bringing something different to the investigation. Kat was an interesting main character that I sympathised a lot with not least because I’m dreading the day my children are teenagers. I admired her for her strength and passion for her job but she also frustrated me at times with her absolute conviction she was right. This brilliant debut had me gripped the whole way through. A refreshing and different take on the police procedural genre’ Prima

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. Jo Callaghan makes her entry into the crowded police procedural genre with a fresh take on the buddy-buddy cop trope. In the Blink of an Eye predicts the near future when police officers and their AI counterparts will work hand-in-holographic-hand. The human-AI interactions between the lead protagonists as they pursue their quarry are illuminating and, at times, hilarious. Provocative and compelling. A TV series seems a certainty’ VASEEM KHAN Clever and compelling, it offers a new take on the police procedural while also examining what it means to be human and the personal cost of loss’ Brian McGilloway 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.”In the Blink of an Eye is a dazzling debut from an exciting new voice and asks us what we think it means to be human. The kind of fresh and fearless debut I just adore. Wildly original, heartfelt, funny, and properly thrilling. Take a bow, Jo Callaghan’ CHRIS WHITAKER Debates about the future impact of AI on fiction are too often led by considerations of supply – what AI might be capable of – rather than demand – what do we, as humans wish to create and consume? The question is not whether AI can replace the role of writers, but the extent to which the consumers and commissioners of fiction are willing to invest in original, human-generated stories. Crime fiction with a speculative twist, In the Blink of an Eye is an impressive debut from British author, Jo Callaghan. As someone who both delights in reading and strives to write words that move others, my evening with ChatGPT was fascinating and discomforting in equal measure.

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. 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. Callaghan develops a solid mystery and I thought it played out well. There’s plenty of tension, enhanced by the anonymous perspective of a young man suffering at the hands of shadowy figures, and effective twists in the plot. Imagine a future where those who are most adept at getting AI to write creatively will dominate, while we writers who spend a lifetime devoted to our craft are sidelined. OK, this is a worst‑case scenario, but we have to consider it, because ChatGPT and the other Large Language Models (LLMs) out there have been programmed to imagine a future that threatens many creative professions. ChatGPT is already responding to the questions I ask it in seconds, quite reliably. It is an impressive beast, but one that needs to be tamed. We cannot afford to ignore it.It's so much more than a dystopian police procedural and asks questions about who we are and what it means to be human. Brilliant' Nikki Smith

AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic? A very well put together and entertaining police drama. I highly recommend it. You will feel all the emotions. An incredible book. So original, gripping and wonderfully written. I raced through it’ Karen Hamilton

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?? 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. Should a novel contain information that instructs us about parts of the world we haven’t yet or won’t ever encounter in the course of our own limited lives? The original ChatGPT – not to mention the newer models that have already caused that one to seem obsolete – has in its possession more information about the world than any human has ever possessed.