This was fun!
A police detective returning to work after compassionate leave following the death of her husband is not pleased to be assigned the role of heading up a pilot using an AI program to investigate missing persons cold cases.
The AI presents as a hologram (different avatars are available, but he usually goes as a tall attractive black man) that interacts in real time with the people around it. He reminded me of Mr Spock in Star Trek (or perhaps Data, also from Star Trek) in that he is unerringly logical and not very tactful (at least at the start) and at odds with the police woman’s gut feelings approach.
The programmer who designed him has no love for the police since her gentle and studious brother was jailed for a crime he didn’t commit after being racially profiled and possible had evidence planted on him by police.
I found the book very readable – I liked the race against time element as we saw that some of the missing people were being held captive and I liked the characters all having complex and interesting backstories and going on journeys of personal development. I could see it as a good TV series.
Sarah Wray Writer 