ShortBookandScribes #PublicationDay #BookReview – Body of Lies by Jo Callaghan

Posted on 21st May 2026 By Nicola

Body of Lies by Jo Callaghan is published today by Simon & Schuster – happy publication day! My thanks to the publishers and The Likely Suspects for the proof copy.

Human suspicion. AI manipulation.
When truth can be rewritten, who can you trust?

DCS Kat Frank is back at the Future Policing Unit after a devastating loss – and straight into her most disturbing case yet.

On Halloween night, a local MP is found murdered. Beside the body is a taunting message in binary code, aimed directly at Kat:

Catch me if you can.

The victim was a vocal opponent of AI. The motive looks political. But as Kat investigates with her partner, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI detective – the case spirals into something far more dangerous.

Then a cyberattack takes down the National Grid.

With the country in chaos and lives on the line, Kat and Lock must track a killer who is always one step ahead. But in a world of deepfakes, deception and digital ghosts, instinct is no longer enough.

Kat must decide whether to trust the one thing she still fears most: her AI partner.

Because this time, Lock may not just be solving the case.

He may be changing what it means to be human.

Can Kat stop a killer before the lights go out for good?

The chilling ending of book three in the Kat and Lock series, Human Remains, left me champing at the bit for book four and my goodness, what a book it is and what a truly brilliant finale to the series as a whole….sob.

After the terrible events of book three, DCS Kat Frank is getting back to some normality with AIDE Lock, the AI detective who resides in a bracelet on her arm and who manifests himself as a hologram, by her side. The two characters and their interactions are what make this series so very special and Body of Lies is no different. Lock, as you might expect, is very literal and the juxtaposition of AI and human can be really funny at times. It’s no laughing matter, though, when an MP is murdered in a very public and disturbing way. Kat and Lock begin their investigation but things get even worse when there is a major cyberattack on the National Grid.

This is a fast-paced and VERY exciting book. Thrillers don’t get any better than this for me and I particularly like the AI aspect which illustrates all the good and bad sides of a technology which feels both futuristic and a part of everyday life. AIDE Lock exists in that way, working alongside the police, which makes him feel like just another member of the team. Just as AI is already all around us, largely unregulated and gaining in power, it all feels very believable and possible.

I’m bereft at the end of this spectacular series (tears were shed). I honestly can’t praise it enough. Body of Lies rounds it all off nicely, being both an outstanding story in its own right and the perfect conclusion overall. The murder aspect alone is utterly gripping but add in the thrill of the race against time to save the UK from the consequences of an extended period without electricity (think about how much we rely on it) and Body of Lies is pretty much the ideal crime thriller. In case you couldn’t tell, I absolutely adored it.

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.