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Amazon.co.uk Review
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Many thought that Jake Arnott's debut, 'The Long Firm', was good but not quite as good as the hype tried to convince us it was. Frankly, Hemingway, Hammett and Greene together would have been hard pressed to come up with anything that good. His eagerly awaited follow-up, 'He Kills Coppers', has arrived - and it's better.' (Time Out )
'Compelling ... Arnott is a writer of many shades and, as in his debut, The Long Firm, shows his penchant for combining challenging storylines with strong storytelling.' (Max Davidson, Sunday Telegraph )
'Arnott is a craftsman at what he does, a real cabinetmaker of pulp fiction, with everything nicely dovetailed’ (Sunday Times )
'Intoxicating' (Scotland on Sunday )
'Propels Arnott further into a league of his own' (Independent on Sunday )
'Brilliant' (Literary Review )
'Easily as good, if not better, than the superb Long Firm ... A stylish tour-de-force' (Big Issue )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Arnott certainly has talent, but is this ultimately empty?,
This review is from: He Kills Coppers (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:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Loss of Innocence,
By
This review is from: He Kills Coppers (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 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:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Jake Arnott, the 21st Century Dickens,
By A Customer
This review is from: He Kills Coppers (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!.
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