Karen Chisholm
REVIEW
THE BAD POLICEMAN - Helen Hodgman
Reviewed By
Friday, March 13, 2009
I confess to not putting a category or genre on this book because I'm not really sure what it fits into (other than fiction of course).
This is a fabulous little book - the story of Marcus Blainey, a poet who works as a cop. The cop persona is taking over rapidly and he's not coping well.
Marcus tells his own story - and he's very very hard on himself. It might be that he's got a point in some places, but really he's not quite as bad as he seems to think he is. But he doesn't cope well with anything much in his life. When his wife left him I don't think he saw it coming, when his son stepped away from him, I doubt he'll ever work out why. His police partner is a bit of an overachiever, but I don't think Marcus can quite figure out why and I know his partner doesn't get Marcus. But he's not completely disconnected from everything - he has joined a men's support group (which is probably part of the problem from the sounds of it), he finds himself attracted to women - but there's something offputting about being attracted to the widow of a man whose death he had to report to her on duty.
Perhaps not unexpectedly events conspire to change things for Marcus - as far as everyone else is concerned. Despite his panic when he finds himself completely unable to react or cope when a child he knows appears to be in danger, somehow he becomes the hero. But in typical Marcus fashion - he doesn't think so.
Fast-paced and refreshingly tightly written, THE BAD POLICEMAN is sometimes funny, sometimes tragic. Always claustrophobic most of the book happens in his own mind - and that's not a comfortable place to be.
BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
BLURB
'I love the poet in you', she said. But the poet was very small and the policeman was, and still is, getting bigger and one day soon the policeman will plant his big fat bum in the poet's face and it will be Game Over.
Constable Marcus Blainey has done bad things. The Bad Policeman is his effort to set the record straight. Inside his head is not always a comfortable place to be, particularly now his wife has left him and isn't coming back. It also seems his son doesn't plan to forgive him either.
Blainey is trying to overcome his paralysis of will to help a child in danger. But, as he tries to cope with the pressures of his job he finds himself sliding down the slippery slope of moral panic. The only redeeming features of his life are his cat, his partner Steve and his waning passion for poetry.
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Friday, March 13, 2009 |
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009 |