Having adored Jo Callaghan’s In the Blink of An Eye (reviewed here) and Leave No Trace (reviewed here) I was beside myself with excitement when a copy of her latest book, Human Remains, arrived in surprise book mail. My huge thanks go to The Likely Suspects for sending me a copy. It’s my absolute pleasure to share my review of Human Remains today.
Published by Simon and Schuster on 24th April 2025, Human Remains is available for purchase through the publisher links here.
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 . . .
My Review of Human Remains
DCS DCS Kat Frank has a new case to solve.
Oh dear. I absolutely adored the first two books, In the Blink of An Eye and Leave No Trace, in the DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock series, so how I’m supposed to review the third, Human Remains, without repeating myself I have no idea, except to say that I think this third book is even better than the first two. I would also say that there is no need to have read the earlier books thoroughly to enjoy Human Remains, but not to do so is to miss out on a fantastic series.
I loved every aspect of this exciting, skilful and gripping thriller. I’m not normally a huge fan of police procedural narratives, but Human Remains transcends the usual genre into the most magnificent read by weaving in scientific and technological elements completely naturally, and totally convincingly. Terminology is included so that the reader feels educated. However, the terminology never impedes the flow of the narrative. As a result, it’s hard to over-emphasise just how brilliant, how intelligent and how compelling the story is.
To some extent the investigation into the headless body found at the beginning of the story is only a fraction of the interest. The developing relationships within Kat’s team and family, the way Lock continues to evolve, Kat’s own past, and the scientific development of AI are layered, mesmerising and gripping aspects. What Jo Callaghan does so hypnotically is to take technology and science and overlay these aspects with humanity and emotion in a way that leaves the reader reeling. It’s impossible to explain why and how this happens without revealing too much of the plot for others, but rest assured this is a plot with heart-thumping moments and deep emotion. It’s truly fabulous.
And the title is just wonderful. Human Remains fits every aspect of the narrative, from the literal human remains found in the first few pages of the story, to the aspects of us that are left when reason, logic and rationality are stripped away. As a result, Human Remains entertains completely, but at the same time suggests the potential future for AI – and all humanity – so that just as the reader believes they have formed an immutable opinion, Jo Callaghan rips away certainty and leaves her readers confounded, unsettled and desperate for more.
The themes in the story illustrate the power of social media, the potential and threat of AI, grief and loyalty, with practical policing as well as other aspects exploring emotional and human connection so that Human Remains is multi-layered and sensitively resonant.
In case it isn’t clear (and I am aware of some vagueness here for fear of spoilers), I thought Human Remains was fantastic. I cannot recommend it highly enough and I am genuinely desperate for more from Kat and Lock. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Jo Callaghan is a must read author!
About Jo Callaghan
Jo Callaghan works full time as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce. She was a student of the Writers’ Academy Course (Penguin Random House) and was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Writing Competition and Bath Novel Competition. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019 when she was just forty-nine, she started writing In the Blink of an Eye, her debut crime novel, which explores learning to live with loss and what it means to be human. She lives with her two children in the Midlands, where she spends far too much time tweeting as @JoCallaghanKat and is currently working on further novels in the series.
For further information, follow Jo on Twitter/X @JoCallaghanKat or find her on Instagram and Bluesky.
English (US) · 