Fascinating but tragic
I donââ?¬â?¢t often read non-fiction but when I do, I usually choose memoirs which have a link to crime. Prison psychologists, prisoners, police officers all tie into my interest in true-crime and link to the crime thriller fiction books I love to read. No Comment is the story of Jess McDonald, also a true-crime junkie who joins the ranks of Met Detectives on the brand-new Direct Entry Scheme. This scheme was open for anyone to apply and would entail skipping the years of ââ?¬Ë?on-the-beatââ?¬â?¢ experience usually needed for a Detective and offer more streamlined training. This scheme was supposed to help not only bolster an over-worked workforce but also encourage diversity by giving the opportunity to people from all walks of life.
Jess� account of her experience is fascinating and harrowing in equal measures. There is a good balance of her personal life and backstory fed into the book, but it never felt like it dragged or made you want to skip over it, which has happened in some memoirs I have read. We start by learning about what made Jess want to apply and the training she went through before going into actual cases she dealt with along the way. Jess is also refreshingly honest throughout, talking about her battle with depression which saw her take time off from the Met and how difficult this was to achieve.
There are a few bits of repetition in the book which I think could have been edited a little better, and Jess sometimes comes across as a bit of a martyr. She is the first to refuse the tear gas training, she always tries to stick up for the downtrodden and takes every opportunity to state that she would not do something again that she found to be morally dubious. I�m sure she probably had a fair few faults that she does not disclose in this book but as she has since left the Met she doesn�t need to touch on these!
The book does not paint a particularly good picture of the Met itself, we hear of tales of bullying, disregard for mental health and sexism. We hear of how over-worked the people there are with cases that need so much paperwork and pile up endlessly that the recruits feel that they can�t make a difference. We also hear of how so many of the Direct Entry Scheme graduates ended up leaving, unable to cope with the darker side of the institution. We learn of cases where people are released without conviction, able to offend again when it seemed so simple that they should have been kept away from society from the overview of the case. Jess mainly worked in the Safeguarding unit which deals with Domestic Violence, so take this as a trigger warning.
Overall, No Comment is a fascinating but also tragic peek into the inner workings of the Metropolitan Police Department from an important outside perspective. Thank you to NetGalley & Bloomsbury Publishing â�" Raven Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
