A review by fleurione
He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’m glad I  finally read this after it’s been on my to read pile for 20y! I can’t place exactly what I like about Arnott’s writing, but I do love it. Characters? Characterisation? The experiences they have and what they do with them? It’s a sad book, the lives of the characters are sad. But that I think shows the empathy the reader feels with the characters, who aren’t good people, and that’s down to the writing.

This review sums it up for me: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/58dd097c-7ca8-46ea-9550-d7a32e56a8a8

There’s a murder, that has closure at the end by the death of the murderer - but that just leaves the cop facing an empty future.
The cop who wants to be good people but really isn’t; or is he because of his desperate want to be despite his actions .. what makes a person good?
The murderer, the cop killer, is the one who seems to have had the happiest life and seems to get his own closure at the end.
Then there’s the reporter who is also a murderer and gets away with it but he doesn’t like being a murderer and so he doesn’t have a happy end either. 
Not really sure where I’m going with this.