Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worst nightmare, 2 Nov 2008
This is a true account of how a person survives being in jail. It must be every law abiding citizen's worst nightmare that they might find themselves in prison, but this is what happened to the author, a well respected, decent, young man. Not only that, the young man was in fact a serving police constable and found himself being charged with assault after being attacked by someone he was trying to restrain. The book was an absorbing read, so much so that once I started it I couldn't put it down. The author writes about his lifelong ambition to become a police officer and talks about his early career, where he was commended on more than one occasion. Sadly his career and his life were left in tatters after a confrontation with a violent offender. How this young man coped in prison is beyond me, it must be an ordeal for anyone who is usually law abiding to find themselves "inside", but for a policeman to find himself amongst the dregs of society in jail does not bear thinking about. I found myself close to tears as I read the effects this had on the young man and his family. How on earth a judge could have arrived at the decision for a custodial sentence is beyond me, but worse, how could another police officer testify against him and why did the police bring charges? In this day and age police officers should stick together, not condemn a colleague. Despite what many people think, the police do a dangerous job and should be rewarded not punished when they reprimand violent members of society. This book reminds us of the everyday incidents they have to deal with. It is a testimony to the courage of the author, not many of us would have survived what he had to put up with while in custody. He tells of how his food was tampered with and how he was subjected to harrassment and physical abuse from fellow inmates, but at the end of the day he came through it. An excellent read, highly recommended.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A story of true courage., 26 Oct 2008
This is the story of an injustice resulting in a fight for survival. Prison is the most awful place for a young man of good character with a promising career, but prison for a young police officer is just beyond what most people could imagine. The story gives an insight into this most hostile of places. It gives an insight into the feelings and cause of constant intense fear, the unimaginable loneliness, the absolute hopelessness, and the serious physical and mental persecution of a police officer in prison. A story of horror, immense courage and eventual triumph. A disturbing but brilliant read. Di.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a remarkable debut, 27 Dec 2008
This is one of my favourite types of books. The genre has many different names; a true life story, an autobiography, a memoir, non fiction and so on.
A Fair Cop is all of those and more. I fear this review will not do it justice. I have struggled to get into words the impact it has had on me.
Michael Bunting is a very skilled writer, the story grabbed hold of me from the first page and held me engrossed till the very last word. I wanted to read it all in one sitting but the words in A Fair Cop reminded me that it is important to let life get in the way of a book, no matter how interesting the reading may be.
A Fair Cop made me reassess my priorities, revaluate all the things that I held most dear. By the time I finished reading this magnificent book I had a strong urge to hold those I love nice and close but I also felt cleansed and somehow renewed.
Although this book contains one of the most harrowing, shocking tales I have read in the past few years, it is also filled with a raw insight into the ability of the power of 'good' to tuck itself away in places you'd least expect.
Michael Bunting had his eyes opened to this remarkable quality by being stripped of most things that he cherished. In this memoir he shares his new found insight.
Between the covers of this book are some twisted, crazy angry people, many painful insights into the raw emotional and physical brutality of human nature but also and most importantly there are unexpectedly beautiful insights into life, fear, love, hope and kindness.
There are some amazing characters in this book and the most impressive of all is the the author himself with this display of unpretentious inner strength. I suspect that he would want to disagree with that statement as what comes across on every page is the humility of this very talented author.
I am amazed that this is his debut novel and look forward to reading anything else he chooses to write.
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