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The author spent time as a police officer in the Metropolitan Police Force, and specifically with Homicide Command before leaving to write this book. This means that official procedures and dialogue between the police officers ring true and makes the actions convincing. The trivial conversations and joshing between colleagues is authentic. These dialogues are increasingly important as the main dilemma of the book is revealed and I found myself going back and re-reading these sections to clarify what was originally said.
The location of the book is a rundown London suburb (which sounds to me like Shepherds Bush). There are excellent depictions of conflict between middle class house owners keen to gentrify the area and housing association tenants exhibiting some anti-social behaviour. The grim descriptions of the seedy metropolis are realistic which gives an edgy backdrop to the plot. There are graphic images of tower blocks with ‘’stinking lifts’’ ''stinking lifts'' and poorly lit stairwells. The author is poetic in her portrayal of the harsh street life, ‘’ '' the tall buildings, like needles on a sun dial, had cast sharp cold shadows on the waking streets’’streets''. The urban scene is ‘’concrete ''concrete and tarmac, lined with halal takeaway shops, cash converters, pound stores and Tesco Metros’’Metros''. The weather too, seems to reflect the depressing lives of the people who live in the squalid houses. They are ‘’blasted ''blasted by the wind’’ wind'' while ‘’bitter ''bitter winds hurtle across the roof’’roof''.
It is at first hard to warm to any of the main protagonists. Kate London skilfully brings them to life and adds little details to give them a depth that was originally lacking. You see the moral dilemmas that face PC Lizzie Griffiths, a young inexperienced but none the less idealistic copper. She struggles to do the right thing and to stop events spiralling out of control. As Lizzie becomes increasingly desperate the reader lives with her the need to make the right decisions and support people for the right reasons.