Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan is book number two in the Kat and Lock police procedural series but can be read as a standalone.

Having heard great things about In The Blink of an Eye I knew I needed to see what all the hype was about. I binge read both novels back-to-back. I was hooked. What a unique concept: an AI working with a team of detectives to solve a series of crimes. I love the tagine: One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic. It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear . . .

In Leave No Trace, a body is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd. Having worked well in a previous cold case, DCS Kat Frank and her team, including AIDE Lock are given their first live case. However, with a media frenzy around the use of AI to help solve a murder case, Kat is put under even more pressure to find the perpetrator. And then another body is found, also crucified. It seems that the killer is just getting started. Time is running out for them to join the dots, so they must combine their human instinct and algorithms to catch the killer before they strike again.

This book had a lovely balance of a police procedural with characters at the core. As the book unfolds, the characters are developed further, and you get to see a softer, more vulnerable side to all of the team members. Issues such as loneliness, loss, and friendship are explored. AIDE Lock appears as a hologram, which reminded me of the TV show Quantum Leap. I loved how he attempts to develop human characteristics in order to improve his own detective skills.

Both books in the series have an interesting, unpredictable storyline. Leave No Trace had more gore and gruesome crime scenes. A fantastic read.