Her series featuring DCS Kat Frank and AIDE, the world's first AI detective, includes In the Blink of an Eye, Leave No Trace, and (not yet in the US) Human Remains.
A lot of reviewers have focussed on the fact that AIDE Lock is unusual because he is an AI detective," Callaghan writes at the Waterstones blog, "but Lock just provides a different way into exploring the age-old debate of logic vs instinct."
One of the author's five favorite unusual detectives:
Reggie Chase in When Will There Be Good News by Kate AtkinsonRead about another detective on Callaghan's list.
This girl detective is a classic example of the ‘informal’ detective: just sixteen years old ‘with the body of a child, mind of an old woman’. She drives thenarrative forward when she discovers her beloved Dr Jo Hunter is missing, badgering ex-detective Jackson Brodie to help find her. Although she is clearly smart and resourceful, Reggie’s unique ability is that she understands the heart of Dr Hunter, which allows her to spot the lies and mis-directions of those who do not. She is driven not by that old trope ‘a relentless quest for the truth’ but by her desperate need for love after the recent death of her mum. And despite the high body count and dark themes of vengeance and justice, the central theme of this wonderful novel is that in the end, all that matters is love.
When Will There Be Good News? is among Paula Munier's eight works informed by The Odyssey and the Christian Science Monitor's best novels of 2008.
--Marshal Zeringue