Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Jacob Smith has got a bad marriage, a penchant for steroids, a violent temper and a foot fetish. None of this would be particularly unusual if he was a villain – but, in Mike Thomas's debut novel, he's one of the policemen. And he's got a gun.
The 38-year-old is supposed to show "fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality". Instead, he's cruising the streets as part of a firearms unit, living out PlayStation-inspired fantasies and dispensing his own peculiar brand of justice. "I am the law," he rails. But life is getting complicated for Jacob. His unorthodox methods (the details recorded in a pocket notebook) soon raise eyebrows, his drug dealer turns nasty and a spell stalking a colleague proves a prelude to his main obsession: a young prostitute.
Thomas is a serving policeman and, while his protagonist is an amalgam of unlikely extremes, this book is clearly written by someone who has seen coppering at first hand. We see Jacob on a quiet night-shift playing "snooker" – which means stopping cars in colour order: red first, then any colour from yellow to black, then red, then a colour.
In his anti-hero, Thomas has created a character who has been marginalised and brutalised, partly by frustration at being unable to make more of a difference. Our introduction to him is at the scene of a car accident, trying to comfort a young drunk-driver despite knowing she's going to die. This inability to save people is a theme returned to more than once.
Factor in Jacob's dysfunctional childhood and taste for booze, and you're left with a man consumed by bitterness and rage, who loathes other coppers, the "Trumptons" in the fire service and all things PC. He reserves particular venom for petty criminals – the "trolls and inbreds in their shell suits". While Pocket Notebook might become cult reading in police circles, it certainly isn't about to become a recruit training manual. This is an enjoyable black comedy that builds to an exciting climax, even if the main character is short on redeeming features.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments