Police, Arrests & Suspects: The True Story of a Front Line Officer by John DonoghueMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Donoghue, Donoghue, Donoghue…” You’ve gone and done it again. If you’re looking for something to lift your spirits, this author has the ability to tickle your funny bone until it hurts. Looking at the true life of a front line officer, Police, Arrests & Suspects is just as screamingly hilarious as John Donoghue’s other books: Police, Crime & 999, Police, Lies & Alibis and Shakespeare My Butt. I’ve spotted a few tweets and read reviews on this author’s books, where readers have claimed to be caught in the embarrassing situation of laughing out loud on public transport. Hands up! Guilty. I now have my official local transport looney badge. How Donoghue combines razor sharp wit with subtle delivery and superb timing leaves me in awe. His ability to communicate the less savoury side of everyday policing and the real danger response officers often face, making it obvious that they ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’, only makes the book more compulsive reading. The recognisable traits of certain criminal types are genius. You can feel the despair emanating from the officers and see every roll of the eyes. The characterisation, along with the writing, is simply brilliant. The CBT incident (no spoilers) literally brought tears to my eyes – Ouch! – and the “killed myself in the mirror” line and the image that created will stay with me for a long time. There are many such nuggets of pure gold. I’m smiling as I type. If ever you spot someone laughing uncontrollably on a gloomy, grey day, ask them what they’re reading. I bet it’ll be John Donoghue. If they’re just looking as miserable as sin, recommend them a JD tonic. No, not the amber coloured stuff. In fact go one further, make a kindly donation to the humourless and buy them a John Donoghue book. Uniquely witty, eye-openingly informative and fabulously entertaining, I would highly recommend any one of them.
