A very well put together and entertaining police drama. I highly recommend it. You will feel all the emotions. Stories are a powerful way to engage people in these vital conversations, so although I have (hopefully) written In the Blink of an Eye in an entertaining and sometimes humorous way, I also explore questions of how the police make decisions, the use (and abuse) of data, and the line between ‘gut instinct’ and prejudice. 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. M. LOGAN 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.” Also: if ChatGPT is not as clever as we think it is, then it could be done for plagiarism by thousands of irate authors or by itself. But I expect it has thought of that.

It’s phenomenal . . . Perfect blend of police procedural and techno thriller and kept me guessing right to the end!’ STEPH BROADRIBB Is this the way the world is headed? It certainly will make you think, the pros and cons of a computer assisting in these cases. There is no emotion in a robot, no sense of helping people. But the machine can save weeks of work by multiple officers. 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. 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 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??To those of us who have been writing in collaboration with machines for many years – a motley and multigenerational community of bot programmers, computational linguists, hobbyist novel generators and poets of chance – the output of the most recent LLMs, of which GPT-4 is currently the most famous, is notable for its blandness. For years we have been freely sharing tools and their creations on the internet, developing codes of ethics and innovations in aesthetics, only to find an unimaginable monster landing in our midst. That monster is not artificial intelligence but profit. Profit-seeking use of literary machines necessitates sanding down every rough edge, felicity of error, eeriness of syntax and exposure of the inhuman that most interests their keenest human collaborators. The further such machines climb out of the uncanny valley, the duller they appear, because they have become familiar. If creativity is so vital to the human condition, then we must not allow ourselves to drift into a future shaped by what AI is capable of, leaving the role of humans to be defined by default. How do we, as humans, want to live our lives, and how can AI support us to achieve that? For millennia writers and philosophers and artists have grappled with the question of what it means to be human. It’s time to stop asking the question and instead start shaping the answer.

I didn’t know what to think going into this book as I adore Detective thrillers / Police procedurals but I wasn’t so sure about the AI element but I shouldn’t have bothered worrying at all as this was just amazing from beginning to end. I adored Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables, as she was so smart, yet couldn’t stop talking (I was always getting told off for talking too much) and of course, she wanted to be a writer. On TV, I loved Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman – anything that had super strong women who saved the day! 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.With well-drawn characters, believable emotions and an interesting premise, you can see this becoming a TV series. 7/10’ Independent 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.

Should a novel place itself in conversation with the canon, with the long history of great novels that came before it? LLMs have absorbed more text – including most of the novels that have ever been written – than any human ever will. In the Blink of an Eye by Jo Callaghan will be published in Australia by Simon & Schuster on 10 January 2023. I’d been hearing lots of great things about In The Blink Of An Eye so when I was approved to read it on netgalley I was naturally very excited, though nervous as to whether it would live up to the hype but it completely does. In fact I’d say that it’s one of the most original, gripping and thought provoking thrillers I’ve ever read! 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. Everything you could hope for in a thriller: heartbreaking, intelligent, deftly plotted and so original' Fiona Cummins

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A standout debut with a unique and thrilling take on the detective novel. Engaging, exciting and superbly readable. I loved it' SARAH HILARY Featured onthe BBC 2 series ‘Between the Covers’, debut author Jo Callaghan will be visiting The Hive to discuss her first novel ‘In the Blink of an Eye’, rated as “The most original crime novel you’ll read this year”.