Bad Copper

by J.K. Flynn

What would you do if fate handed you over half a million in cash? Half a million, and all you had to do was not try to save someone’s life?

That’s the choice Police Inspector Rupert Jones faces, a man whose own life has lurched from one disaster to another for as long as he can remember.

Recently divorced and living in a caravan park, Rupert is tired of being a loser, and he’s tired of being broke.

Half a million is his chance to finally turn his life around…

The question is, will he take it?

Genres: Thriller, Fiction

290 pages, ebook

Published October 21, 2025

About the author

I spent over ten years as a frontline police officer in the UK. It’s a job unlike any other, a job that exposes you to aspects of life and society that most people never get to see. It changes your perspective on the world. My time in law enforcement made me want capture that perspective, to write crime fiction with an authentic voice, raw and unvarnished. Detective Esther Penman is the product of those efforts – I hope you enjoy her stories!

Subscribe to my newsletter at jkflynn.co.uk for news on all promotional discounts on my books!

— J.K. Flynn

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would be fair to say that Police Inspector Rupert Jones is somewhat adept at shirking his duties, and with one disaster after another, he admits he’s a loser.
His personal life is on the down. He’s recently divorced, lives in a caravan that’s seen much better days, his ex girlfriend says her baby is his, and he’s sinking in a sea of debt.

However, if Jones thinks his life is bad now, it’s about to get a whole lot worse - But first it actually gets better - much better!

Whilst working/shirking his duties one night, passing time on a lonely country road, Jones comes across a car accident, the driver close to death, and on closer inspection he discovers a holdall containing a huge amount of cash. What does he do? Well what do you think?

Jones being Jones, he lurches from one stupid mistake to another, leading to his life changing yet again, and unfortunately he has to take the consequences that come with it!

Well what an entertaining read this was, one minute I was shaking my head at the stupid decisions Jones was making, and the next I was holding my breath, the tension palpable, wondering what on earth was coming next, as events become ever more sinister! Very enjoyable.


*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

Well I'm not often truly surprised by an end but that really threw me a curveball at the last minute.

DI Rupert Jones isn't having the best time. His wife is living with another copper with his two sons, the woman he cheated on her with won't let him see his daughter, his career has ground to a halt, his car is clapped out and he's living in a freezing caravan. But worst of all, he's having to pay for all his mistakes and he's run out of money.

So when, during an interminably dull night shift, he comes across the scene of an accident where a man is dying and there's a bag full of money just sitting there, you can imagine how conflicted this particular bad copper is.

Don't get me wrong, Rupert has already made some wildly stupid life choices but when your life is already down the toilet is there really anything else to lose.

I know I probably wasn't supposed to but I really liked Rupert. He's so irredeemably hopeless. He's not even particularly bad - he's just an idiot. And he barely stops for breath before he's making even more moronic decisions. How can you possibly not like a man who really can't stop taking the wrong road every time?

The book takes Rupert on an absolute roller coaster ride and it's a mix of open-mouthed horror and a laugh out loud insanity. I really enjoyed the journey, but the end truly took me by complete surprise. Of all the things I imagined happening - it certainly wasn't that.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys something a bit different that's well written, funny, full of suspense and surprises with the sort of anti-hero you can't help but like.

Thankyou to Netgalley and JK Flynn for the advance review copy.

[Lavins · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

"What would you do if fate handed you over half a million in cash?" Well that is not accurate at all. No one really hands out anything to anyone. That is very misleading. Someone decides to take possession of it and then deal with the consequences of their own actions. Not before taking an unbelievable amount of really, really stupid decisions. Head shacking, eyes widening bad decisions. It really made me ask myself how did this person even got the job he had.

The book is pretty long and dragged for the most part. And the fact that I disliked the main character did not help one bit.

The ending though was pretty decent. I really enjoyed the conclusion, the finality. It was a good ending, that somehow saved most of the book. Although it felt a bit rushed at first, but on a second thought I wish the entire book would have had the same pace.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!

[NomadicReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and J.K. Flynn for the arc.
When I was presented with the opportunity to read this novel, I was intrigued by the synopsis; a down on his luck police officer who encounters a stash of money during an accident investigation and takes it, and the consequences that follow. This novel definitely presents the theme, "What would you do," throughout the plot and has ample tension and suspense within it. There were even a couple of times this novel was able to tug at my heart and bring tears to my eyes. The ending was not at all what I was expecting. I have never read this author's work before, and if you haven't either, he is definitely worth checking out!

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

DCI Rupert Jones is put in a situation where I wonder how many of us may make the decision he has, in his place. He has an ex-wife who now has a new partner and two sons and after a very shirt relationship with another woman after his marriage breaks up and another baby that is going to bleed him dry, his child support payments are through the roof.

Out on a job one night he is driving down a quiet street when he comes across a car with a man in there who is very close to drawing his last breaths. While looking at the scene he discovers a bag with money in it, a lot of money. Due to his financial predicament and living out of a caravan he is in, he stops and wonders who would know if he took the money, certainly not the man behind the wheel and there is no one else around. On impulse after some really quick thought processes as to how the cash could change his life, the money ends up in the boot of his own car and this is what sets the scene for the story.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought Rupert was a great character and the plot moved along at a pace that kept me engaged in the story. I will be looking out for more books by this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy of the book, all opinions expressed are my own.

[Sylvia Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

DCI Rupert works for the local police station. He doesn't get paid as much because he doesn't carry a gun and is not apart of any special forces.
Rupert is down on his luck. He is getting a divorce. He has 2 sons by his former wife. She gets on him every chance she gets when he is late picking them up. He can't help her with cash or aid. He lives in a trailer park and also has another woman sweating him for a newborn
On a night of duty Rupert runs into a car wreck. Not just any car wreck. When Rupert tries to provide help the man is dying but there is money all over the car including a bag full of it.
Rupert is down on his luck and decides to take the money thinking no one wil ever know
And that's where the trouble begins...

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

SURPRISING PROTAGONIST!

I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Written by J.K. Flynn and published by Chingola Publishing in 2025, this is a Story about a uniformed police inspector in a small town called Duncastle located a short distance beyond the suburbs of London,England. Rupert Jones is lazy and irresponsible. He does everything he can to avoid working or taking responsibility. He lives in a trailer park, where his rent is three months past due. He has an ex-wife named Rebecca and two young sons for whom he must pay child support, which is also past due. The boys’ names are Rhys and Eddie. Rhys is “eleven going on sixteen,” while Eddie is only five and completely enamored by Marvel superheroes. After his divorce from Rebecca, Ruport had an affair with another woman, named Francine. He has a daughter named Martha by her, and he is also delinquent on support payments for that child. He appears to like his beer, so he might be an alcoholic, in addition. All-in-all, not a very likeable guy. Strange to see such a person as a protagonist in a novel.

As I continue to read on, I see that Rupert is also very dumb. In keeping with his laziness, he chooses to patrol at night in a forested area with little to no traffic that could see him when he pulls over to take a nap. One night, he happens upon a crashed car that has come to rest upside-down against a tree. The driver is very badly hurt, but when Rupert sees a lot of money lying loose in the wreckage, he declines to administer first aid and, instead, grabs a hold all filled with 50-pound back notes. Being basically a dishonest man, he scoops up all the loose bank notes he can find, puts them in the hold all, and locks it in the bonnet (trunk) of his police vehicle. When he gets back to the station, he moves the money to his private vehicle and then takes it home with him. There, he washes the blood off some of the bills and counts all of it. There is more than £650,000 inside. To prove that he is not only dishonest, but also DUMB, he stupidly begins to show the world his newfound wealth by paying his back rent in cash, then going out and purchasing a brand-new (and very expensive) Maserati, which he begins driving immediately. Everybody at the police station is flabbergasted, but Rupert wants to show off for a good-looking female officer. She does not seem interested, which surprises Rupert.

As you might expect, the criminals whose money he has stolen do not take long to find him, and they take the remaining money he has buried in the woods after making him dig a grave for the criminal who had originally tried to steal the money, and who they had shot and killed. The crime boss now believes that he “owns” Rupert, and he expects the police inspector to share confidential law enforcement information with the criminals. At least three men whose location information Rupert shares with the mob are subsequently murdered, and Rupert begins to have second thoughts. To continue their pressure, the criminals kidnap Eddie, Rupert’s five-year-old son, and threaten to harm him if Rupert does not continue to perform for them.

Fortunately for Rupert, his ex-wife and her new husband are moving to Australia with their sons, and Rupert sees an opportunity to move them to a place that will be safely out of reach from the criminals. He moves up their travel plans and arranges for them to leave England immediately. That gives Rupert time to formulate a plan to redeem himself, which he does, and in a spectacular fashion.

This author is a skilled writer. There are very few editing errors within. (In one location, he/she uses the word “hoards” rather than the correct word “hordes.”) All the loose ends appear to be tied up by the end of the story, which is moderately fast-paced and easy to follow. I liked this novel and will recommend it to other readers. I intend to read more of this author’s works. I award four of the available five stars for this novel.

[Crimefictioncritic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just because they are entrusted with enforcing the law doesn’t mean that some individual police officers don’t commit crimes. That’s where Police Inspector Rupert Jones comes in. He’s not only a lazy performer as a cop, but he’s not very smart, and is also beset by a long series of disasters, of his own making.

Rupert is divorced because he got caught having an affair by his ex-wife, and he also impregnated his mistress during the affair. As a result, he’s broke, lives in a caravan park (trailer park for non-Commonwealth country readers) where he is months past due on his rent, and drives an ancient, undependable car.

As if Rupert Jones isn’t contemptible enough when we meet him in the opening chapters, he soon becomes more wretched when he stumbles across a serious car crash while avoiding work. The driver is at death’s door but still alive when Jones arrives and discovers a carryall bag in the wrecked car containing millions in cash. It occurs to him that all he must do is let the injured man die and then he can keep the money and use it to turn his life around. Given his weak character, that’s exactly what he does, the first of a series of poor decisions that mire him deeper into trouble.

J. K. Flynn’s debut standalone novel, Bad Copper, is set in a small English town outside of London and is filled with tension from the point where Rupert Jones gives in to temptation and goes from being a lazy copper to a bad copper.

To make things worse than Jones manages on his own, he gets entrusted with an important assignment to safeguard a British MP who has received death threats from a criminal kingpin. Rupert’s original decision to steal the money (which turned out to be drug money) ends up endangering the MP and her son.

Bad Copper moves at a rapid pace, especially after the discovery of the money, and kept me turning the pages even though the end for Rupert Jones seemed quite inevitable the deeper I got into the book. I fully expected Jones would suffer a similar fate to that of Llewelyn Moss (No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy) who also stole a satchel full of drug money. There was a genuine sense of unease throughout the novel because the despicable Jones kept putting more and more innocent people at risk (including his own sons) because of his self-serving actions and ridiculous choices that must inevitably out him as a thief.

What really sets this novel apart from others in the genre is its perspective. Rather than the traditional hero-type police officer, J. K. Flynn gives us a pathetic failure of a man as the protagonist, who we might have loved to hate were Rupert Jones not such a pitiful loser all around. It’s a fascinating and gripping look at cops and crime from the opposite perspective. You get the sense that it’s very much based on reality, albeit exaggerated in some places to entertain the reader.

Bad Copper is a dark and authentic novel that shines a light on what is a rarely explored corner of crime fiction. If you love your fiction dark and gritty, then you are going to love this new novel by J. K. Flynn.

I purchased the copy of Bad Copper from Amazon used for this review.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad Copper is about a copper who believes in the ethics of law enforcement. Things change when his marriage breaks down and he finds half a million dollars, which he thought no one would miss. However, for Police Inspector Rupert Jones, that was not the case when a local criminal rang him asking him to go against is ethnics and give away a safe house location. Will Police Inspector Rupert Jones defy his convictions? Readers of Bad Copper will continue to follow Police Inspector Rupert Jones as they discover what happens next.

Bad Copper is the second book I have read by J.K. Flynn, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I learnt about the danger that can happen when law enforcement officers have a problem with drinking. I appreciate the way J. K. Flynn added the twist in this book that kept me engaged.

I love J. K. Flynn's portrayal of their characters and the way they intertwine with each other throughout this book. Bad Copper is well-written and researched by J. K. Flynn. I like J.K. Flynn's description of the settings of Bad Copper, which complements the book's plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with an ARC for an honest review. I recommend this book.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would you do if fate handed you over half a million in cash? Half a million, and all you had to do was not try to save someone's life? That's the choice Police Inspector Rupert Jones faces, a man whose own life has lurched from one disaster to another for ad long as he can remember. Recently divorced and living in a caravan park, Rupert is tired of being broke. Half a million is his chance to finally turn his life around. The question is, will he take it?

Recently divorced Police Inspector Rupert Jones is down on his luck. He has two sons to support. He can't help his ex-wife with much, he's living in a caravan park, he owes rent money, and is behind with his child support payments. He also has a daughter with a woman he had an affair with, he owes money to her too. One night shift he finds a car that crashed into a tree. The driver is in a bad way, but instead of calling for help, he sees a bag filled with £50 notes, and decides to help himself to the money instead. I loved this book.

Published 21st October 2025

I would like to thank #NetGalley #BooksGoSocial and the author #JKFlynn for my ARC of #BadCopper in exchange for an honest review.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

📚Bad Copper
✍🏻J.K Flynn
Blurb:
What would you do if fate handed you over half a million in cash? Half a million, and all you had to do was not try to save someone’s life?

That’s the choice Police Inspector Rupert Jones faces, a man whose own life has lurched from one disaster to another for as long as he can remember.

Recently divorced and living in a caravan park, Rupert is tired of being a loser, and he’s tired of being broke. Half a million is his chance to finally turn his life around…

The question is, will he take it?
My Thoughts:
J. K. Flynn’s debut standalone novel, Bad Copper, is set in a small English town outside of London and is filled with tension from the point where Police Inspector Rupert Jones gives in to temptation and goes from being a lazy copper to a bad copper.
Thanks NetGalley, Chingola Publishing and Author J.K. Flynn for the advanced copy of "Bad Copper" I am leaving my voluntary review in appreciation.
#NetGalley
#ChingolaPublishing
#J.KFlynn
#BadCopper
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Gordon Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bad Copper here is DI Rupert Jones, a rural inspector coasting along doing as little work as possible. His private life is a mess, with an ex wife and two kids, as well as an ex girlfriend with a baby she claims is his. He's in debt, living in a caravan and driving a twenty year old car. But none of this is his fault, of course.

So when this unsympathetic character comes across a massive bag of cash in the boot of a crashed car what does he do? The driver is dead so there is no one to know ... this could change his life.

Of course it doesn't turn out as Jones expects. And he soon finds himself in massive trouble due to several stupid mistakes. But when the pressure is put on him he decided to do the right thing and becomes Supercop. The plot here is rather straining credibility and the ending feels too neat.

Overall this is a good and authentic read, but the plot just doesn't quite work in the concluding section of the novel.

[Hannelore Cheney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for the eARC.
This is a tremendous book, featuring a detective who finds a crashed car with a dying man and a bag full.of money. His life is a mess and he decides to take the cash in order to make his life easier. He makes some silly mistakes: buying a fancy car and a luxury apartment, as if that's not an obvious flag! As I was reading that I despised him and didn't feel sorry for him when the chickens came home to roost.
But after that things change ... he changes. The rest of the book was very exciting and nearly
brought me to tears. The ending was unexpected, but very moving. I loved it!

[Martha Brindley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit of a rollercoaster! What would you do if you came across half a million pounds in cash? This is the dilemma facing lazy Inspector Rupert Jones who is up to his ears in debt. It's a fast paced read and I alternated between feeling sympathy and frustration for Rupert due to the skilled writing by the author. The characterisation is good, as is the plotting but I felt the ending was a bit rushed and I wanted just one more chapter! I would recommend the read though due to the plot originality. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This is the second of J K Flynn's books I have read, and I've enjoyed both. They are solid police procedural stories that keep you engaged throughout. They were both pacey and had surprises I didn't see coming.
What made this one 3.5 stars instead of 4 was that I wanted it to be a little longer; it felt rushed in certain parts. I wanted to know a bit more detail about how situations were unfolding at times - this is testament to the quality of writing: I was invested and hungry to understand Rupert Jones even more deeply.
The story itself is one of hapless tragedy as our main character tries his best to do as little as possible and keep his head down but falls face-first into one terrible decision after another! At times, I couldn't see how he would get himself out of the tangled web he was weaving so here was definitely tension in the reading.
The book also made me think about what I would have done if I had found myself in the initial situation that starts his waterfall of despair and I can totally understand why he did what he did at that point, even if his later choices made me cringe.
Thoroughly enjoyable read.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

DI Rupert Jones is a very unlikeable character and that he comes over as such is a credit to the author. His actions and poor choices gradually lead him into trouble and he subsequently redeems himself. I’m surprised I found it so difficult to get into it.

I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

[John Roach, · Rating 5 out of 5]

good read