Human Remains by Jo Callaghan

Human Remains

 by Jo Callaghan

Human Remains by Jo Callaghan

 was published on 24th April 2025 

by Simon & Schuster.

My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to 

Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the tour.

Synopsis

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 . . .

My Review

Oh my goodness this series of books just keeps on getting more and more gripping. I must admit when I read the closing sentences of Leave No Trace I was left wondering where we were going next. 

The narrative is engaging in all levels and the mix of characters , and their descriptions, allows your imagination to create their images and place them in the different settings with ease.

I now feel , after reading the third book by Jo that I know DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock and how they work together really well , though this instalment will have you wondering how far we should go with AI in this context and will have you weighing up the positives and the negatives . 

The storyline progresses and develops at a fast pace taking you down different avenues that you don’t see coming which consequently put you in that exciting mindset of having you question everything that is happening and then having it all blown apart again.

I absolutely love these books and yet again the ending leaves you on the edge of your seat in anticipation of the next instalment for Kat and Lock , though I am extremely nervous as to where it is going to go next.

For me Jo Callaghan is one of those crime authors I cannot rate highly enough  and I would recommend everyone who loves crime fiction to read these incredible books.

Right , how much longer have I got to wait before I find out what Kat and Lock progress onto next ?

About Jo Callaghan

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