I started and was ready to give up after AIDE - Artificial Intelligence Detective Entity named Lock was introduced.

A device is given to Kat to communicate with Lock and its fair to say that she has major issues with the whole prospect of the pilot. The plot was so intriguing and the characters are very interesting, I do hope there is more to come with Kat. Kat and her boss are cynical about politicians' intention to cut resources / officers and replace them with technology not capable of nuance and intuition. I loved the AI-angle and it was so well executed, shining light on dilemmas with AI in a easy to grasp way where you saw the pitfalls at the same time as the potential for AI.Sorry to go all philosophical on you guys, but good on the author for tackling such a controversial, moral, and ethical issue, and incorporating it into a police environment in the novel way that she did.

Whilst Lock is, undoubtedly, a genius and can provide essential information in seconds, they do lack empathy, social niceties and don't have that gut instinct that humans, and especially well experienced police officers, have. 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. Kat is often frustrated by Lock's way of doing things, and their interactions are often laugh out loud funny, whilst always being serious too. A rare crime novel truly as much about character as it is about plot…cried at the ending…huge potential series exploring the human AI connection. She reluctantly accepts the role of lead in a pilot programme to work alongside an AI detective, known as AIDE Lock.

I thought I might struggle with this original AI concept but it did not seem implausible, and I wasn’t bamboozled by any major technical gobbledegook. A really clever twist on the police procedural that asks big questions about instinct, bias, and what it means to be human while also delivering a cracker of a plot.