Gallowstree Lane: 'An authentic depiction of gang life and police politics' From the author of ITV's The Tower

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The author was clearly using her experience as a police officer to inform her creation of these characters. Like all police officers she started in uniform, working for two years on a response team, and then moved into the CID.

This is my first read by this author and I hope it wont be the last, this book just seems to be so relevant at the moment as our capital is suffering a similar fate young men being stabbed gang violence in many boroughs and the author just adds a engaging twist to the story, keeping just the right side of being realistic and powerful. Rival London gangs and casual fatal knifings is very much a story of today, but it doesn’t mean that I want to read a fictional account of it as well as listen to it on news items.It’s much more intelligent and well written than many of the huge slew of crime novels around now, and I can recommend it very warmly. I just flowed with this and plan to read them so that I can understand their backgrounds as well as reading two more excellent police procedurals from Kate London.

This is a book about the gangland warfare in London and how young people and drug users are influenced by these thugs who roam the streets, picking out vulnerable folk for their own gratification. Lizzie Griffiths and Sarah Collins, two members of the force, are both also involved in this case but coming at it from very different angles. DI Kieran Shaw is part of Operation Perseus, undercover to finally get the evidence needed to arrest and charge Shakiel, to bring an end to his reign and stop guns getting on the streets. I was neither swept up but the urban atmosphere or convinced by Kate London’s need to use “dem”, “dat” and “diss” when recounting from Ryan’s perspective.I think the main reason was because whilst the recurring characters who are the police do feature much of the novel concerns Ryan, a young teen who is a drug runner for a local gang.