Best-selling thriller writer Robert Harris steps into the topical and murky world of high finance for his latest novel The Fear Index. Here he talks to The Sunday Times chief fiction reviewer Peter Kemp about the book, which features a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that tracks human emotions and can predict movements in the financial markets. It has made its creator Dr Alex Hoffman rich, but his world and the financial markets are about to be thrown into turmoil.

Harris has written eight popular novels, including Archangel, Enigma and The Ghost. His first novel, Fatherland, is about to be released in a 20th-anniversary edition. Many of his works have been turned into films for TV or the big screen. He is currently working on a screenplay of The Fear Index.