In Conversation with Jo Callaghan

Join us as we chat with author Jo Callaghan about her latest book, Human Remains, which is set in Coleshill, Leek Wootton and Shustoke!

Human Remains

DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock are back in a cutting-edge new thriller.

The truth will always come out, but at what cost?

Fresh from successfully closing their first live case, the Future Policing Unit are called in to investigate when a headless, handless body is found on a Warwickshire farm. But as they work to identify the victim and their killer, the discovery of a second body begins to spark fears that The Aston Strangler is back. And as the stakes rise for the team, so do the tensions brewing within it.

When DCS Kat Frank is accused of putting the wrong man behind bars all those years ago, AIDE Lock – the world's first AI Detective – pursues the truth about what happened with relentless logic. But Kat is determined to keep the past buried, and when she becomes the target of a shadowy figure looking for revenge, Lock is torn between his evidence-based algorithms and the judgement of his partner, with explosive results.

When everything hangs in the balance, it will all come down to just how much an AI machine can learn, and what happens when they do . . .

Leave No Trace

One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic.
It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear . . .

When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd, DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI detective – are thrust into the spotlight with their first live case.

But when they discover another man dead – also crucified – it appears that the killer is only just getting started. When the Future Policing Unit issues an extraordinary warning to local men to avoid drinking in pubs, being out alone late at night and going home with strangers, they face a hostile media frenzy. Whilst they desperately search for connections between the victims, time is running out for them to join the dots and prevent another death.

And if Kat and Lock know anything, it’s that killers rarely stop – until they are made to.

The Blink of An Eye

THE SUNDAY TIMES bestseller, as seen on BBC 2's BETWEEN THE COVERS
A WATERSTONES THRILLER BOOK OF THE MONTH

*WINNER* OF THE THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2024
*WINNER* OF THE CRIME WRITERS' ASSOCIATION ILP JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2024

AND NOMINATED FOR TWO OTHER MAJOR AWARDS
Capital Crime Book of the Year 2023
Crimefest Specsavers Best Debut Crime Novel

‘I devoured this in one sitting’ Rob Rinder, as featured on BBC 2’s Between the Covers
‘Terrifyingly timely and provocative' Val McDermid
'The most original crime novel you'll read this year' Clare Mackintosh


In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds.
Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye.

DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat's instincts come up against Lock's logic. But when the two missing person's cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.

AI versus human experience.
Logic versus instinct.
With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?

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.

About the author

Jo Callaghan works as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and geonomics on the workforce. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019, she started writing In the Blink of an Eye, her debut crime novel and the first in the Kat and Lock series, which explores learning to live with loss and what it means to be human. It was a BBC Two’s Between the Covers pick, as well as a Waterstones Thriller of the Month, and went on be a Sunday Times bestseller and 2024 winner of both the prestigious Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger awards. To date it has been published in over fifteen different countries. Jo lives with her two children in the Midlands, and loves connecting with readers on social media as @JoCallaghanKat. She is currently working on further novels in the series.

Free refreshments provided. Books will be for sale at the event courtesy of Waterstones Nuneaton. Cash only.

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