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Crime fiction round-up with MAT COWARD: March 22, 2023 
Underfunded cops, sleight of hand, murder qualifications and fascist infidelity

LOTS of people talk about defunding the police, but it’s taken a decade of Tory austerity to actually achieve it. 

BAD FOR GOOD (Allison & Busby, £8.99), the first novel by Graham Bartlett, former divisional commander of Brighton and Hove police, is as angry a debut as you could hope for. 

It’s set in a fictional version of the author’s old bailiwick, where ever fewer cops, deploying ever dwindling resources, are scarcely capable any more of responding even to emergency calls. Meanwhile, politicians demand better results at the same monthly meetings where they order more cuts. 

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