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LEAVE NO TRACE

This thriller may feature state-of-the-art AI, but its solid craftsmanship is timeless.

The second book in the British Midlands–set Kat and Lock series reteams what may be crime fiction’s oddest couple, given that one half of the pair isn’t even human.

A man has been found dead on Nuneaton’s Mount Judd, his nude body tied to a cross and his ears cut off. To identify the victim and solve the crime, the Warwickshire police force’s DCS Kat Frank once again partners with Artificially Intelligent Detecting Entity Lock, the world’s first AI detective, who takes the form of a 3-D holographic image of a 30-something Black man. According to Professor Adaiba Okonedo—the Black scientist who created Lock and whose personal experience with racism has left her wary of cops—the idea is to use bias-free AI to “rebuild public trust and confidence in policing.” Also good: In a matter of seconds, the AI detective can do things such as “cross-check the victim’s facial characteristics, height and weight with all social media posts matching white men between twenty-five and forty ­in the Nuneaton area.” To mystery readers not predisposed to reaching for tech thrillers, the premise may sound intimidatingly geeky, but once Callaghan establishes her terms, it’s one fleet, accessible scene after another. For the Star Trek savvy, conversations between Kat and her literal-minded partner may recall exchanges with Mr. Spock (Lock: “Your entire theory is built upon nothing but your imagination”; Kat: “It’s called empathy, Lock”). The novel’s central question—should humans fear replacement by machines?—hums throughout, but never hinders the story’s forward momentum, and the plot’s big reveal is unlikely to be foreseen by even the AI-abetted reader.

This thriller may feature state-of-the-art AI, but its solid craftsmanship is timeless.

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025

ISBN: 9780593736852

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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THE BIG EMPTY

A potent and surprising novel by the ever-reliable Crais.

Hired to find the father of celebrity “muffin girl” Traci Beller 10 years after his disappearance, PI Elvis Cole uncovers a nefarious plot that puts his life and those he contacts at risk.

The sweetly likable Traci, now 23, has amassed a huge following with her website, The Baker Next Door, and on social media. Against the advice and self-interest of the people who over-manage her career, she decides to find out what happened to her father. Cole quickly determines that he was last seen at the SurfMutt hamburger stand, where he gave a ride to Anya Given, a troubled 15-year-old whose mother, Sadie, was late in picking her up from the skate park across the street. With the reluctant help of a scattered young woman who used to work at the burger joint, Cole tracks down Anya and Sadie, who is eventually revealed to have a criminal past. For his efforts, he’s jumped by a small gang of men who send him to the hospital with the worst beating of his life. (Asked by a nurse what his name is, the best he can guess is “Los Angeles.”) Still in recovery, Cole and Joe Pike, his ex-Marine partner, trace his attackers to Sadie, with unexpected results. As ever, Crais draws the reader in via his protagonist’s casual, dryly humorous manner and the book’s relaxed ties to classic noir. Slowly but surely, the plot gains intensity and deadly purpose. Just when you think the missing persons case is solved, Crais ratchets things up with a devastating follow-through. This is the L.A. novelist’s 20th Cole mystery, following such efforts as The Watchman (2007) and Racing the Light (2022). It may be his most powerful.

A potent and surprising novel by the ever-reliable Crais.

Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025

ISBN: 9780525535768

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024

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