He Kills Coppers & truecrime (Jake Arnott, 2001 & 2003)

basics...

The second and third books of The Long Firm trilogy, He Kills Coppers and truecrime continue and expand upon the world of British gangsters and police that Jake Arnott began in the book that named the threesome. Coppers follows the exploits of policeman Frank Taylor, journalist Tony Meehan, and small-time crook-cum-cop-killing legend Billy Porter through the 1960s and into the 1980s, while truecrime moves Tony into the 1990s alongside hard man Gaz Kelly, and Julie Kincaid, daughter of a gangland father, out for revenge on the man who killed him - Harry Starks. 

brilliant...

Picking up where The Long Firm left off, He Kills Coppers and truecrime work well as standalone stories, and work even better as parts of a labyrinthine whole, tied together by common characters and events. Harry Starks, prominent in Firm, is more of a sinister background presence in the second book, but his (perceived) actions at the end of book one directly feed into the overarching plot of truecrime, namely the plot to end him. Arnott's prose is a pleasure to read, packed with period detail and interesting, earthy characters from various walks of life. The cops are as three-dimensional - and flawed - as the criminals, and the multi-protagonist approach to the books (in Firm and truecrime, one chapter per character, in Coppers, the three characters each get a third of a chapter) means that events are seen through different eyes, meaning it can be difficult to know who to sympathise with. That doesn't mean that the characters aren't sympathetic though, even the villains - Gaz's story in truecrime is particularly good as he narrates his approach to changing fashions in clothes, drug culture and celebrity. 

but...

I think my only real grumble with the books is my own fault - I wish I'd either re-read The Long Firm before reading books 2 and 3, or that I hadn't left it so long before finishing the massive trilogy that's been sat on the shelf only a third read for years. I found myself flicking back through The Long Firm to try and remind myself what Starks was all about, and to see whether the characters in later books has popped up before.

briefly...

A classic trilogy that seems to get better with each entry, He Kills Coppers and truecrime were both captivating reads. And if David Bowie thinks that the books are 'funny, fast, witty and brutal', who am I to argue?