I had a slightly love-hate relationship with this novel. More hate really. I had read The Long Firm (the two books form part of a trilogy) with some - um - not enjoyment; it's far too grungy for that, and expected to react similarly to this one. He Kills Coppers spans three decades from the 1960s to the 1980s. There are stories of corruption, in the Police service principally, but also in the world of journalism: it reminds us, in the section recording developments in the ‘80’s, of the sheer nastiness of much of Thatcher's Britain.

The three main characters, who take turns with the narrative, are hard to warm to and are somewhat two dimensional, while all other participants in the narrative remain strictly one dimensional. Each, in their different ways, has an interest in small time criminal-turned-murderer Billy Porter.

I remained fairly unengaged by the story. But as a memorial to country going though profound social change, corrupt in many of its institutions, it makes an interesting if rather horrifying read.. ( )

Frank Taylor, un novato ambicioso y con tendencia a la corrupción, y Dave Thomas, un detective honrado, forman parte del dispositivo policial especial encargado de limpiar el West End londinense de buscavidas, estafadores y chicas fáciles durante el Campeonato del Mundo de Fútbol de 1966. Durante un control rutinario algo se tuerce, y Frank recurre a sus superiores para que lo destinen a él y a su compañero a otra operación, a una más segura. Poco después, el brutal asesinato de tres policías conmociona a la opinión pública inglesa. Dave es uno de los policías asesinados, y Frank no puede dejar de pensar que su muerte es una tragedia provocada por él mismo. Sin embargo, para Billy Porter, autor material de los hechos, todo forma parte de un plan que salió horriblemente mal, lo cual supone el comienzo de una rocambolesca huida que pondrá en jaque a la policía. Pero para un joven periodista del Sunday Illustrated, el crimen es el golpe de suerte que estaba esperando y un revulsivo a toda una serie de instintos siniestros a los que es incapaz de resistirse.

I saw the tv version with Rafe Spall a few years back and enjoyed it. The book is also excellent ( )

I first read this novel four years ago, after watching the television adaptation, which I thought was really well acted and very emotional. Arnott's fictionalisation of two real life events, the Shepherds Bush police murders of 1966 and the 'Battle of Beanfield' riot in 1985, is still a corking piece of writing, however.

'Our best man was dead. Though it would be a long time before his ghost was put to rest. Especially with his killer still on the run. Dave was always there. Between us.'

Split between three narratives - the first person recountings of detective Frank Taylor and twisted journalist Tony Meehan, plus Billy Porter, Arnott's take on Harry Roberts - the story follows Frank Taylor's guilt-ridden and career-long hunt for Porter, who kills Taylor's best friend Dave Thomas and two other policeman on the day that England won the cup against Germany. The Shepherds Bush 'massacre' really happened, of course, but 'names and identities' have been blurred slightly to protect the innocent and presumably prevent lawsuits. Thrown in to fill the pages is a convoluted investigation into seedy underworld dealings and bent coppers, plus a love triangle between Frank, Dave and a prostitute called Jeannie, which I think is actually the strongest subplot in the novel. Rafe Spall, Liam Garrigan and Kelly Reilly play the respective lead roles to perfection in the miniseries.

I don't usually like 'gangster' novels like this, stocked with shady characters and flimsy female stereotypes, but Arnott's novel works well, perhaps because the story is based on real events, making Dave's death even more sad and shocking, but also because the characters are so convincing. Frank is a berk, but he's also a sympathetic narrator, openly admitting his failures to the reader, and Jeannie is wonderfully enigmatic. Tony and Billy are less attractive, obviously, and Tony's story continues in Truecrime, but both of their dramatic narratives are distinctive and realistic.

I haven't read any of Jake Arnott's other novels, but I most definitely recommend this one (and the adaptation too, for a great soundtrack!) ( )

A great follow-up to 'The Long Firm', with many overlapping themes and some characters in common. This one has a different structure, though, following three people (a policeman, a journalist and a criminal) through the late 1960s and beyond. They are all connected by the crime at the centre of the novel, and though their paths cross relatively little during the course of the story, there is the sense that they will converge at the end. If anything surprised me, it was that the conclusion was rather less surprising than the blurb suggested, and that the journalist's story became slightly detached from the others.

The quality of the writing is excellent, this is an author who doesn't get in the way of the writing, who understands how to drive a strory forwards. I don't remember the 1960s but I felt as if I was there in the early chapters. ( )