Gallowstree Lane: 'An authentic depiction of gang life and police politics' From the author of ITV's The Tower

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London understands the real, personal cost of holding the thin blue line and she brings that understanding to her characters. Detective Inspector Sarah Collins and her team are tasked with finding the killer and before long she is once again crossing paths with Detective Constable Lizzie Griffiths. I liked the way the book shows the impact of the role on officers’ personal lives, whether that’s the long shifts, the unsocial hours or the traumatic scenes that linger long in the memory. He's happy to pick Lizzie up on what he perceives as her failings as a mother, but he's not prepared to actually help with anything practical.

I think if I knew Kate London I would deny her access to the outdoors until she wrote sufficient words for the day haha. I found the plot convincing and very relevant, given the current soaring level of knife crime in London. This downtime is used for an insight in to mental waffling about the case which neither furthers the readers understanding of events or moves the plot on. I wasn’t aware until I started reading that this was the third in Kate London’s series of London-based police procedurals but expected as with other series that it would likely work as a stand-alone apart from some aspects of character development. My takeaways from reading were the now familiar topics of poor parenting and cuts to police numbers and whilst I am intrigued to learn the backstory of the police characters I have no interest in reading more of this series.London put me right in the middle of the action, from the chilling and horrifying first scene of young Spencer bleeding out on the street as his friend Ryan looked helplessly on to the frustration and danger encountered by the investigating detectives. I am curious, how much actual truth was in Ryan’s thoughts compared to real life youth who act like “wannabe gangsters”.

I strongly recommend this book to all, but especially to anyone living in London, I hope you will like it as much as I did. Ryan watches his friend bleed out on the path of Gallowstree Lane and, after ensuring help is there for his friend, he runs. When Lizzie is seconded to work on the confidential and specialist policing of Operation Perseus it reunites her with the father of her child and married ex-lover, flashy DI Kieran Shaw and hands her the knowledge to scupper his ambitions and potentially solve a brutal murder. Other characters, such as DI Kieran Shaw who is heading up Operation Perseus, seem to tread a finer line and I suspect offer a more realistic view of the attitudes of many fighting the perpetrators of inner city knife crime. The insights and observations that the author provides in the novel smacks of personal experience and knowledge, and it turns out there is good reason for this with the author having a personal history as a serving police officer.Although the tv show is extremely well done, you still don’t get to fully know the characters as Kate London brings them to life in her novels. An investigation into one of London’s tit for tat killings can’t be allowed to derail Perseus and let the master criminals go free.

Normally I would expect this to be filled with a sense of camaraderie between officers (think Lynda La Plante or Carol Wylie) but there is none of that here.With knife crime and gang warfare on the up, especially in London, this book does reflect that culture very well. Behind the headlines of gan

This is number 3 in the Collins and Griffiths series by Kate London, but can easily be read as a stand-alone. Told from multiple perspectives, we see the impact a murder has on the different characters, and each of said characters is developed well and interesting. Now don’t get me wrong, I know men have feelings but London only gave me glimpses as Kieran fought to save all his hardwork of the past two years, they gave the novel balance with their harder, more pragmatic approach. The perspective of his best friend, Ryan, who is obviously deeply traumatised by seeing his friend stabbed but has to maintain his face, at only 15 years old, is heartbreaking. He’s a member of a gang, used by them, with a father also a gang member who was murdered years before and a mother who is an addict.Kate London has written a police procedural but with a difference, it has a realistic feel, totally believable with a human touch. What would be the outcome for Shaw’s operation with the craziness that was happening across London, threatening everything they’d worked for? Here London’s experience working with the Metropolitan Police really shines as she effectively captures the politics and the pressures around both operations which, despite everyone’s best efforts, still manage to collide. I know from experience, the ringing of unanswered mobile phones amidst the devastation brought many officers nightmares.