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Good Cop
The blistering follow-up to GoodCopBadCop.
Detective Inspector Brian Fisher seeks to put the past behind him and free himself from his 'Bad Cop' persona once and for all. But it's not easy to turn your back on a dark history of depravity and violence. Fisher is about to discover his inner demons won't let go without a fight.
Both crime drama and Jekyll-and-Hyde-inflected psychological thriller, Good Cop continues the dark humour and bruising action of GoodCopBadCop.
Detective Inspector Brian Fisher seeks to put the past behind him and free himself from his 'Bad Cop' persona once and for all. But it's not easy to turn your back on a dark history of depravity and violence. Fisher is about to discover his inner demons won't let go without a fight.
Both crime drama and Jekyll-and-Hyde-inflected psychological thriller, Good Cop continues the dark humour and bruising action of GoodCopBadCop.
218 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 7, 2021
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 13, 2021
A well-crafted dark and gritty police procedural set on the streets of Glasgow...
Maintaining the pace of excitement, drama, and thrills author Jim Alexander artfully continues the general storyline from the first book. Good Cop (A sequel to GoodCopBadCop) intricately layers its plot with precision and has the forethought to humanize it's characters as much as possible, leaving you completely engrossed in the outcome throughout. The author has created an intriguing storyline that demands the reader keep up with each twist and insertion of new information in order to comprehend fully what the main protagonist is up against.
There’s no doubt that Good Cop is an exceptionally well-written book. However, it must be said that this story is not for the faint-hearted or easily offended. The author’s script at times is razor-sharp. There are scenes of graphic violence with language that may not be suitable for the linguistically sensitive. Nevertheless, the themes and outcome are just as affecting in the arresting contemporary landscape.
This for me was a phenomenal read. It’s one of those stories that stayed with me long after I finished reading it. The vivid descriptions of the settings, situations, and the people were stunning and the author’s use of genuine dialogue further added to the overall atmosphere of authenticity.
The contrast between tone and content is a characteristic talent of only a few authors. Alexander pays as much attention to his sentences as he does to his plots, shifting or consolidating meaning with the use of a single word. His writing is impeccably honed, full of juxtapositions and qualifications that help to create a genuine and realistic atmosphere throughout.
Highly recommended and a well-deserved five stars from me. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
Maintaining the pace of excitement, drama, and thrills author Jim Alexander artfully continues the general storyline from the first book. Good Cop (A sequel to GoodCopBadCop) intricately layers its plot with precision and has the forethought to humanize it's characters as much as possible, leaving you completely engrossed in the outcome throughout. The author has created an intriguing storyline that demands the reader keep up with each twist and insertion of new information in order to comprehend fully what the main protagonist is up against.
There’s no doubt that Good Cop is an exceptionally well-written book. However, it must be said that this story is not for the faint-hearted or easily offended. The author’s script at times is razor-sharp. There are scenes of graphic violence with language that may not be suitable for the linguistically sensitive. Nevertheless, the themes and outcome are just as affecting in the arresting contemporary landscape.
This for me was a phenomenal read. It’s one of those stories that stayed with me long after I finished reading it. The vivid descriptions of the settings, situations, and the people were stunning and the author’s use of genuine dialogue further added to the overall atmosphere of authenticity.
The contrast between tone and content is a characteristic talent of only a few authors. Alexander pays as much attention to his sentences as he does to his plots, shifting or consolidating meaning with the use of a single word. His writing is impeccably honed, full of juxtapositions and qualifications that help to create a genuine and realistic atmosphere throughout.
Highly recommended and a well-deserved five stars from me. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
October 31, 2023
If you’ve read GoodCopBadCop (this is the sequel), then you will already know what to expect here: a first-person fever dream of pain and violence under the nominal shield of a police procedural. And it does help to have GoodCopBadCop fresh in your mind while reading this, as the recap material is just as delirious as the rest of the story.
DI Brian Fisher continues here from exactly where we left him, after he free-fell to certain death from a building, taking out a prominent gang leader on his landing. In short, we find him a broken man, physically and mentally. But after a miraculous resurrection (which makes his nickname of Lazarus feel like an understatement) he is straight back on the beat.
And his old partner, DS Julie Spencer, isn’t quite sure how she feels about that, having seen his dark BadCop side in the past, but Fisher is SURE that Mr Hyde side was expelled in the fall.
What follows involves people blown to bloody pieces; the torture of humans and horses; body horror and gore all round, in fact! The darkness is leavened slightly by Julie’s deliberately disastrous dates scattered throughout the main investigatory plot and providing some darkly comic relief.
I did get a little confused in places, as the first-person narrative between the two main characters (Fisher and Spencer) makes it hard to always follow clearly whose point of view we are in, until contextual clues give it away. But perhaps such confusion is only to be expected when we consider how seriously disturbed and traumatised the characters that we are… ahem… inhabiting during this story really are.
This twisted Jekyll-and-Hyde story is a shockingly graphic (not for the sensitive) and consistently dark and disturbing exploration of the decisions we make about our own morality and the terrible places it can take us when we make the wrong choices (however well-intentioned). Suspend your disbelief – comic book style – and dive into the action, if you’re feeling brave enough.
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpres...
DI Brian Fisher continues here from exactly where we left him, after he free-fell to certain death from a building, taking out a prominent gang leader on his landing. In short, we find him a broken man, physically and mentally. But after a miraculous resurrection (which makes his nickname of Lazarus feel like an understatement) he is straight back on the beat.
And his old partner, DS Julie Spencer, isn’t quite sure how she feels about that, having seen his dark BadCop side in the past, but Fisher is SURE that Mr Hyde side was expelled in the fall.
What follows involves people blown to bloody pieces; the torture of humans and horses; body horror and gore all round, in fact! The darkness is leavened slightly by Julie’s deliberately disastrous dates scattered throughout the main investigatory plot and providing some darkly comic relief.
I did get a little confused in places, as the first-person narrative between the two main characters (Fisher and Spencer) makes it hard to always follow clearly whose point of view we are in, until contextual clues give it away. But perhaps such confusion is only to be expected when we consider how seriously disturbed and traumatised the characters that we are… ahem… inhabiting during this story really are.
This twisted Jekyll-and-Hyde story is a shockingly graphic (not for the sensitive) and consistently dark and disturbing exploration of the decisions we make about our own morality and the terrible places it can take us when we make the wrong choices (however well-intentioned). Suspend your disbelief – comic book style – and dive into the action, if you’re feeling brave enough.
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpres...
October 22, 2021
Alexander weaves the gritty hunt for a brutal killer with portrayals of everyday selfishness and cruelty, creating a thriller that shows the trauma of facing humanity’s darker side without excusing the imperfection of the investigators.
This novel is the sequel to GoodCopBadCop. Spoilers ahead.
When Detective Inspector Brian Fisher leapt from a tower block onto a crime boss below, he intended to die stopping one last villain. Instead, he woke up in hospital, assumed to have somehow survived an attempt to murder him. Even more miraculously, his attempt has silenced his ‘Bad Cop’ side. However, with the criminals of Glasgow expecting the legendary hard man and his first case back echoing a brutal serial killer from his past, can he leave the monster behind?
As with the previous volume, Alexander interweaves Fisher’s mental state with a gritty police thriller. Rather than the multiple crimes of the first book, the plot is centred around a single investigation into a potentially psychotic murderer; as events unfold, this expands deeply into disadvantaged and criminal areas offering the same image of pervasive physical and moral collapse as the previous volume.
With the first—known—victims police officers and Fisher’s reputation high enough he is almost a totem, he is allowed to return to work well before he has fully recovered. Unlike many heroic cop thrillers, this does not merely result in moments of weakness that add colour but ultimately don’t impede bringing the villain to justice; Fisher staggers, oozes, and nigh collapses in visceral detail.
While Fisher is committed to being only the ‘Good Cop’—or at least only pantomiming the cruel yet clever monster when needed—Alexander’s villain believes he needs to become something else. This provides a powerful contrast, showing the reader that Fisher’s choices are nowhere near as brutal as they might be yet conversely suggesting the possibility Fisher might be more morally culpable because he has enough control to have a choice.
Alexander parallels the differing impacts of Fisher’s and the killer’s mental health issues with an second ‘normal’ binary: DS Spencer, still not taken in by the aura of heroism that surrounds Fisher, provides a voice of mundane decency as she is forced to pick up the slack caused by Fisher’s physical unfitness; while the criminals taking advantage of the death of a crime boss and the presence of a deranged killer are as casually thuggish. Thus, as with the previous book, evil is ultimately a banal thing of selfish choices rather than some special flaw of the “mad”.
Alexander’s descriptions of violence are not a puerile attempt to shock; however, they are graphic, so this might not be a book for those who seek the intellectual complexity or emotional impact of criminal investigation without the glimpses of brutal inhumanity.
Fisher remains an engaging—if sometimes troubling—protagonist. The Hyde-like side of his personality from the first book is gone making him initially feel more pleasant; however, his behaviour is still erratic, with possible post-traumatic stress, the effects of his drugs and his injuries potentially affecting his judgement and provoking hallucinations. This instability is amplified by the current case echoing a brutal crime he discovered many years ago.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel greatly. I recommend it to readers seeking a gritty crime thriller that doesn’t shy away from the mental and physical unpleasantness of human immorality.
I received a free copy from the author with a request for a fair review.
This novel is the sequel to GoodCopBadCop. Spoilers ahead.
When Detective Inspector Brian Fisher leapt from a tower block onto a crime boss below, he intended to die stopping one last villain. Instead, he woke up in hospital, assumed to have somehow survived an attempt to murder him. Even more miraculously, his attempt has silenced his ‘Bad Cop’ side. However, with the criminals of Glasgow expecting the legendary hard man and his first case back echoing a brutal serial killer from his past, can he leave the monster behind?
As with the previous volume, Alexander interweaves Fisher’s mental state with a gritty police thriller. Rather than the multiple crimes of the first book, the plot is centred around a single investigation into a potentially psychotic murderer; as events unfold, this expands deeply into disadvantaged and criminal areas offering the same image of pervasive physical and moral collapse as the previous volume.
With the first—known—victims police officers and Fisher’s reputation high enough he is almost a totem, he is allowed to return to work well before he has fully recovered. Unlike many heroic cop thrillers, this does not merely result in moments of weakness that add colour but ultimately don’t impede bringing the villain to justice; Fisher staggers, oozes, and nigh collapses in visceral detail.
While Fisher is committed to being only the ‘Good Cop’—or at least only pantomiming the cruel yet clever monster when needed—Alexander’s villain believes he needs to become something else. This provides a powerful contrast, showing the reader that Fisher’s choices are nowhere near as brutal as they might be yet conversely suggesting the possibility Fisher might be more morally culpable because he has enough control to have a choice.
Alexander parallels the differing impacts of Fisher’s and the killer’s mental health issues with an second ‘normal’ binary: DS Spencer, still not taken in by the aura of heroism that surrounds Fisher, provides a voice of mundane decency as she is forced to pick up the slack caused by Fisher’s physical unfitness; while the criminals taking advantage of the death of a crime boss and the presence of a deranged killer are as casually thuggish. Thus, as with the previous book, evil is ultimately a banal thing of selfish choices rather than some special flaw of the “mad”.
Alexander’s descriptions of violence are not a puerile attempt to shock; however, they are graphic, so this might not be a book for those who seek the intellectual complexity or emotional impact of criminal investigation without the glimpses of brutal inhumanity.
Fisher remains an engaging—if sometimes troubling—protagonist. The Hyde-like side of his personality from the first book is gone making him initially feel more pleasant; however, his behaviour is still erratic, with possible post-traumatic stress, the effects of his drugs and his injuries potentially affecting his judgement and provoking hallucinations. This instability is amplified by the current case echoing a brutal crime he discovered many years ago.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel greatly. I recommend it to readers seeking a gritty crime thriller that doesn’t shy away from the mental and physical unpleasantness of human immorality.
I received a free copy from the author with a request for a fair review.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews