Leave No Trace by Jo CallaghanKat and Lock #2

 

Title: Leave No Trace

Series: at and Lock #2

Author: Jo Callaghan

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Release Date: January 7, 2025

From the bestselling author of In the Blink of an Eye comes a gripping thriller that pits algorithms versus experience, logic versus instinct, and one undetectable killer versus two extraordinary detectives.

When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of a hill in the British midlands, AIDE Lock—the world’s first AI Detective—and Detective Kat Frank are thrust into the spotlight as they are given their first live case. When a second body is found the police issue an extraordinary warning to local males aged between 30 and 40 years old:

• Avoid drinking in pubs

• If you must go to a pub, do not leave alone

• And definitely do not leave a pub with a stranger

With the national media and local men in an uproar, Kat and Lock have to combine their instincts and algorithms to catch the killer before they can strike again.

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Why can't AIDE Lock be real?

Detective Kat Frank and AIDE Lock are back together in Leave No Trace.

After solving a cold case, Detective Kat feels lonely. She recently became a widow, and with her beloved son now away at university, she’s alone in their house so close to the Christmas holiday. She knows work can keep her busy and help manage her blues. Needing something to pull her from her dark thoughts, she finds no better way than immersing herself in a new case. Her boss agrees and assigns her their first live case. Kat and Lock must work hard and fast to find the person who crucified a young man in the British Midlands before someone else becomes the next victim.

The first book in this series was unique, introducing the concept of AI assisting in case-solving. In this installment, we see Lock evolving through human interaction. He’s learning human behaviors and developing his own version of them. Kat, for her part, is beginning to appreciate areas where Lock is indispensable to investigations. For instance, the vast amount of data he can process in mere seconds helps prevent delays in a live case

The author does pose an interesting question: Is an experienced human better than a free-of-bias machine, or are they complementary?

I can't wait to see where Jo Callaghan takes this team next.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by Random House Trade Paperbacks via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.