- Paperback: 340 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre; FIRST EDITION edition (3 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340748796
- ISBN-13: 978-0340748794
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 14.8 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,193,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Jake Arnott's He Kills Coppers opens in August 1966 when the feel-good factor is running high as England enjoys World Cup victory and a seemingly endless summer. But the sunshine brings some nasty creatures out, and the brutal slaying of three policemen in a west London street sends shockwaves right to the heart of the nation. For three men, the killing is more than a front-page outrage. For Billy Porter, a war-time hero turned petty thief, it's a plan that went fatally wrong. For Frank Taylor, a Detective Sergeant trying to climb the Met's career ladder without resorting to corruption, it's a bereavement--the loss of a loyal comrade which must be avenged. For Tony Meehan, cub reporter on the Sunday Illustrated, it's nothing more than a fortuitous scoop that assures him his job. But reporting the crime awakens sinister urges that he's unable to resist and soon Meehan is creating his own news. Three men who've never met; three lives inextricably linked, in a chain of events that changed history.
Those who raved about Arnott's debut novel The Long Firm will not be disappointed by its successor, a tale combining the tension of a hard-boiled crime thriller with a Dickensian eye for detail. The sounds and the spirit of 60s London are evoked with almost filmic precision, while the plot advances in that swift, inexorable fashion of the very best myths. A few of its peripheral characters, such as Jeannie, the whore with the conscience ("I never want to rely on bad money again"), and Mooney the Masonic vice-cop ("Through the Mysteries of the Craft you can keep yourself clean"), might be slightly clichéd, but the principal trio of narrators is vivid and utterly convincing. For a story that combines morality, the authentic whiff of Soho sleaze and a plot that goes straight for the jugular, readers need look no further. --Matthew Baylis
Review
'One of the smartest, funniest and original novels you will read all year' Independent on Sunday (The Long Firm) 2 'Compulsive reading, powerful writing with an evocative feel for the bleaker side of the swinging sixties' The Times (The Long Firm) 3 'Gripping...slumming it doesn't get much better than this' Time Out (The Long Firm)"
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jake Arnott returns to the sixties, but this time as a jumping off point, for a story of a criminal on the run, a copper who is struggling to stay straight and a journalist hack with a fascination with murder.
The atmosphere is conveyed very well and no problem with the language and characterisation. However, where Arnott is trying to show the disintegration of his lead characters, it just doesn't quite come off yet. He is too distant from them, even when writing in the I voice.
Although this is an extremely engaging book done well, there's an emptiness to it that somehow makes it Guy Ritchie done better and sharper. Comparisons to Ellroy are, as yet, misplaced. However, to be fair, Ellroy's first two novels don't bear comparison to his later stuff. Arnott has potential, once he starts to care and make the readers care about his characters, rather than just wonder how the plot will turn out.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In the followup to his acclaimed debut (The Long Firm), Arnott uses the real case of cop-killer Harry Roberts as the basis for a three-voiced narrative which touches upon British social changes from 1966-1985. Using multiple voices worked fairly well in that first book, and here Arnott uses those of Billy Porter, a young army veteran turned small time thief, Frank Taylor, an ambitious policeman, and Tony Meehan, a young newspaper reporter and closet homosexual. The book starts in London's summer of 1966-the city throbs with World Cup fever and is starting to show signs of being the swinging place of legend. However, in Arnott's world, it's less the place of late-'60s Carnaby St. Austin Powers fun than it is of sleazy Soho, with clip joints run by Maltese pimps. When Billy-who probably has post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in anti-Communist jungle patrols in Malaya-teams up with two losers to rob a bank, things go awry and three policemen are shot dead. Frank and Tony quickly arrive on the scene in their respective capacities, and the trio are momentarily linked before Arnott releases them to drift for nineteen years until they are brought together once again.
After the killings, Billy's story becomes one of survival. As public enemy number one, he manages to evade capture for many years, living on the fringes of society, only to be drawn back to London. The sequences showing Billy's life at fairgrounds, then with travelers, and then later with Class War activists put Arnott's skill on full display, and are possibly the most compelling parts of the book. Meanwhile, Frank makes his way up the ranks, and through a loveless marriage, with Billy Porter as his great white whale. Over the years, through his eyes, we are given a panoramic view of the modernization of British policing. This starts in '66 with police corruption, the influence of Masons on the force, then later, the increased militarization of police, their use as
auxiliaries to crush the mining strikes in the north, riot control techniques of the early '80s,the so called "Battle of the Beanfield" in which they literally ran amok in attacking mostly peaceful and unresisting protesters. Tony's story is less compelling than the other two, as it mostly involves him trying become a legitimate journalist, and his relationship with a gossipy peer. Perhaps to compensate, Arnott bestows a manner of psychopathy upon Tony which doesn't ever seem justified, nor does it work particularly well in the context of the story.
Arnott's doing several things at once, which may not be to everyone's tastes. He's painting sympathetic psychological portraits of three disturbed men, he's telling crime story based loosely on a true story, and he's giving a broad view of part of Britain's social history. In this scheme, the cop-killing becomes the point at which post-WWII giddiness and innocence is lost, and the dirty business of modern Britain (especially Thatcherism) starts. It's obviously an oversimplification, but those who like their crime stories to have something more behind them may well enjoy it. Although his thematic strokes are rather broad, Arnott once again shows his mastery of subcultural details in scenes showing pinball playing mods popping purple hearts, "Liquidator" booming over the tannoy at Chelsea's ground and the subsequent terrace battles, the insular world of the fairground lifers, the empty rebellion of Class War types, and so on. Obviously, one's enjoyment of all this depends greatly on how immersed on is in British popular culture and recent history, but those who are will find plenty to like.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
No, I'm not being condescending. Reading Jake's novel in the year 2002 is like reading Dickens in 1950 - only much more exciting! "He Kills Cops"- once again, based on events which actually happened in the 60's- is yet another equally wonderful original novel, told - as in the case of "The Long Firm" - from the points of view of various different characters (a bent policeman with a conscience; a journalist with some "very strange tastes"; and finally, the murderer himself (who isn't the only killer in the book - but that would be telling!))
The research in this book is absolutely amazing. Among other things, we are treated to such linguistic delights as Polari (the archaic Gay/theatrical slang of the early 60's) and British Romany. Once again, I am absolutely amazed how someone so young is able to capture so accurately the atmosphere of the seedier side of 60's London.
I recently read that the author plans a third book in this series, making it a trilogy. All I can say is, Keep up the great work, Jake!.
The research in this book is absolutely amazing. Among other things, we are treated to such linguistic delights as Polari (the archaic Gay/theatrical slang of the early 60's) and British Romany. Once again, I am absolutely amazed how someone so young is able to capture so accurately the atmosphere of the seedier side of 60's London.
I recently read that the author plans a third book in this series, making it a trilogy. All I can say is, Keep up the great work, Jake!.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Incredibly evocative
Probably my favourite of the trilogy. It mixes a momentum with historical sweep and characters who chart (and often embody) the kind of national malaise that swept Britain in the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by rhymer rigby
They Shoot Losers, Don't They?
The key to a narrating a book from more than one character's viewpoint is to give each character a unique voice. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Sam
True Crime
The book is based on a true story, which begins after a considerable prologue, on the day of the 1966 World Cup Final with the brutal killings of three London policemen. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lance Mitchell
Sleaze Across the Decades
Jake Arnott weaves an intricate story. At first you wonder how every thread and character is going to be brought together, then you see the pattern gradually emerge into an,... Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2009 by M. J. Saxton
I was able to put it down several times I fear!
Unlike the Sunday Telegraph reviewer's quote on the cover and the enthusiasm of certain other reviewers, I did find it very easy to put this book down several times, often... Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2008 by Siriam
My dog ate the book
l had settled down to read this book, got 50 pages into it, and
had to go out. On My return, there was one of my Great Danes
wagging his tale, he had chewed the lot... Read more
had to go out. On My return, there was one of my Great Danes
wagging his tale, he had chewed the lot... Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2007 by Robert P. Splaine
Not a patch on The Long Firm
After reading the quite brilliant Long Firm, I couldn't wait to start on this, and I was very disappointed. Read more
Published on 16 July 2005 by Mr. L. Jackson
The best of the trilogy
Jake Arnott's novels have a very strong prose style, and are obviously very well researched. He Kills Coppers is, for my money, the strongest of the three - taking in football... Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2005 by William Mager
Readable, lively ... accurate as history?
Given my age, I must be forgiven for thinking that the title of this book suggest that it must be about Harry Roberts, murderer. Read more
Published on 25 Nov 2002 by Winkum Dilliamswine
As good as 'The Long Firm'
I read the book in about 3 or 4 sessions and to even up some comments about the first person/third person narrative I'd say that Arnott uses a good technique to allow a description... Read more
Published on 11 April 2002
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
