Synopses & Reviews
August 1966--the long hot summer of World Cup victory euphoria is abruptly shattered when three policemen are gunned down in a West London street. The bewilderingly senseless crime shocks a nation seemingly at ease with itself, and brings an end to the celebrations. It also marks a beginning for three men who have never met--and yet their fates are bound up with the event and its lasting consequences. Frank Taylor: an ambitious detective conflicted by career and conscience as he is drawn into the vice of corruption. Tony Meehan: a gutter-press journalist with a nose for nasty stories, scandals, and exposés as a cover for his own dark secrets. Billy Porter: a disaffected petty thief, haunted by a violent past, pushed over the edge to commit the ultimate crime.
Like Mario Puzo and James Ellroy before him, Jake Arnott finds in the private realities of marginalized, desperate people a longing for redemption that transforms their discontent into the forces and truths that propel all our lives.
Review
PRAISE FOR
HE KILLS COPPERS"Mesmerizing. Brilliant."--The New York Times Book Review
"A British version of James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential."--Publishers Weekly
"Arnott nails every crunch and splatter of his dirty world . . . A wicked delight."--People
"Brilliant . . . This bitter tour de force has a feeling of permanence."--The Washington Post Book World
About the Author
Jake Arnott is the author of The Long Firm, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, which was acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. It was followed by He Kills Coppers, Truecrime, Johnny Come Home and The Devil's Paintbrush. Both The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers have been made into widely praised TV dramas in the UK. Arnott lives in London.