Books 2 and 3 of the DCI Jack Tyler series set in London at the turn of the 21st century
By setting the books around the millennium Mark Romain has given himself the ideal era for for a great Police Procedural series
Technology is moving forward at a pace, Forensic use of DNA is well advanced and in use.
The use of Mobile Phone technology for tracking criminals is in its infancy, as is the forensic recovery of data from mobiles.
CCTV is starting to cover more of the City but is nowhere near as all-encompassing as it is now, and the quality isn’t great.
The Police have recently been criticised over their handling of the Stephen Lawrence case and the ramifications ripple through officers day to day investigations.
The woke society is not yet in full swing and officers, rightly or wrongly, get away with stereotyping and, in some cases, forming unfounded opinions of people.
All of this allows Romain to write books about what many people class as “proper policing”. Using the skills of a detective, actually carrying out an investigation into a crime, doing the boot work.
But it also allows Tyler and his team to use the incoming technology. CCTV, ANPR, mobile phone tacking, in its earliest of forms.
Jack’s Back.
A sadistic killer is using Jack The Ripper for inspiration.
Killing prostitutes in the same area of Whitechapel as the Victorian killer, using the original Jack as a template, but he is also out for revenge, could this be his Achilles Heal
As good as Romain is in writing from the police point of view it is the insight into the mind of the perpetrator.
The parts written from the point of view of the killer is chilling enough, but there are some peripheral characters that brought goosebumps.
Prostitutes and pimps feature heavily in this story and are written in a way that brings them to life as well as the Police characters.
The violence and deprivation of the seedy side of life is portrayed graphically, but without being gratuitous.
In telling the story Romain takes the reader inside the mind of minor players, and some nasty gangsters. He shows us the vulnerability of the girls working the streets and introduces us to the desperation for drugs that sees most of these women selling themselves to strangers.
Most shockingly it also shows us the dangers they face.
Unlawfully at Large.
When a vicious gangster is helped to escape police custody Tyler’s team is assigned to the team hunting him, whilst Tyler takes a back seat to that teams DCI. That is until an unfortunate case of food poisoning see Tyler take over as the SIO.
The vicious gangster escapes from custody whilst he’s in hospital. Aided by a family member and an assortment of small time gang members, and a drug dependant prostitute the group leave a trail of destruction during their getaway.
The case is personal for Tyler and his team and they stretch the limits to try to arrest the group before the main man can make the ultimate escape across the channel.
Again this is a gritty story that doesn’t hold back on the shock factor. But what really impressed me in this book is the feelings and emotion described within some of the main characters.
The pure desperation and unhinged logic of the escaping gangster. The realisation by some of the group that he has become unhinged and that they are involved in something way over their heads.
The pure blissful ignorance of one of the gang as he seems to want a normal life, but doesn’t really seem to realise just how much trouble, and danger he’s in.
On the Police side Tyler and his team are pushing the hours to a ridiculous rate. What Romain doesn’t shy away from is the fact that bad decisions can be made when somebody is exhausted.
The Series so far.
I can’t praise this series highly enough. Reading is subjective and everyone has their own likes and dislikes. I know this series won’t be for everyone but for me it ticks all of my boxes.
It’s realistic, it’s set in an era when policing was coming to terms with new technology and the investigations were not over reliant on CCTV or DNA.
Each of these books can be read as a standalone but I’d really suggest reading the whole series in order.
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