Literary crime thriller · Adult · Forthcoming
The Long Second
Some decisions take a second. Living with them takes the rest of your life.
About the book
Adam Reeve is a police paramedic in a South London police station, a former military medic who carries more than his kit allows. When a teenager from a notorious London crime keeps coming through the cells, Adam becomes the one adult who becomes aware of secret lies and police corruption, and the one person that some very dangerous people would rather silence.
Adam’s job is to keep people alive and support the criminal justice system, and he takes it more seriously than the paperwork does. He writes down what he sees, even when records start to go missing. Kai Doran is the younger son of a South London crime family, a boy who draws in secret and has already been made to watch things no child should ever see. Adam notices what others miss and refuses to look away. But speaking up has a price, and the closer Adam gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes that the danger is not only on the streets. Quiet, humane and gripping, The Long Second is a story about moral injury, institutional failure and the people who do the right thing when nobody is watching.
The world of The Long Second
South London
A South London police station: the cells, the written record and the streets outside.
Key themes
- Doing right when no one is watching
- And still being willing to answer for it.
- Moral injury
- The weight we carry from past decisions, and learning to set it down.
- Criminality
- A boy who is both a victim and caught up in harm, and what it takes for him to be believed.
- Institutional corruption
- The cost of speaking up, and why an accurate record matters.
