Cop This! by Chris Nyst - Australian Crime Fiction HQ

Title: Cop This!
Author: Chris Nyst
Pages: 444
Published Date: 1999
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Series Details: stand alone

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Publisher's Synopsis

In 1969 a home-made bomb explodes in the sleazy heart of Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, killing eleven people, and igniting a controversy that could threaten the government itself.

When small-time criminal Johnny Arnold is charged, his fight for justice sets two men - father then son - on a collision course with the state's most powerful men.

Set against the backdrop of Queensland's seedy underworld of criminals and cops, Cop This! is a powerful tale of corruption, idealism and personal courage, spanning two decades of dark political intrigue and sensational courtroom drama.

My Review

It's reasonable to expect that the most honest and trustworthy members of the community are the detectives charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. All too often this proves to be far from the case. But what would happen if the local police are actually at the centre of the majority of crimes committed in their jurisdiction? Cop This! presents policing at its most corrupt and Chris Nyst delivers a super-charged legal thriller that epitomises the best and worst of the Australian legal profession. Fabricating evidence, confessions beaten out of suspects and the notorious "verbal" (a spoken confession of guilt manufactured by the police) are the tools by which this mob of crooked cops work.

Woe betide anyone suspected of a crime when the Fortitude Valley police get their mitts on you. Alibi or not, when they have to get a conviction they'll get it any way they can come hell or high water.

It's 1969 and the explosion outside Mickey's, a Brisbane illegal casino killed 11 people. Johnny Arnold had been heard to mention to someone that Mickey's was going to be targeted in the ever expanding battle of the criminal underworld. He is picked up by the police and, despite his protestations of innocence and a fairly ironclad alibi, is charged and brought to court for the crime of multiple homicide. He has a bit of past form, but solicitor Brian Leary doesn't think that this should be too much of a concern for his client. What he doesn't take into account is that the police have to pin the bombing on someone and don't care how low they have to stoop to ensure that Johnny Arnold's the man.

The case has a lasting effect on young Michael Leary for a couple of reasons. Just a budding legal student working at his father's firm while the case is unfolding. He is struck by the skill with which Johnny Arnold's barrister destroys every piece of evidence that is brought up against him - right until the final hurdle. But he also harbours a long-standing grudge against his father for the long hours he puts into the case at the expense of his own family. Disillusioned by the end of the trial his mind is made up, criminal law doesn't pay and he aims his career at the more lucrative corporate law.

But chance is a fickle player and he is led back to criminal law 17 years later when he is witness to the heartless injustice of another police-orchestrated travesty that sends an innocent man to prison and ultimately his death. The fire of righteous indignation burns fiercely beneath him and despite warnings from a senior partner at his firm to ditch the murder case that has fallen into his lap, he is prepared to risk it all and take on a group of corrupt cops who are prepared to kill to protect their lies and crimes.

This is a story that is fairly typical of the legal thriller sub-genre featuring a court case that appears beset with so many problems that winning looks beyond hope. As the case builds and more facts come to light we feel a momentum shift and the excitement of possible victory propels us towards the dramatic finish. But of course, the bad guys aren't just going to sit idly by and allow themselves to be brought down without fighting back. Victory may not just be defined by a favourable jury verdict, it may also be measured by who finishes the case with their lives.

Staying true to type, the story is destined to finish in stunning witness-stand revelations, last minute scrambles for ascendancy and a rousing climax that may or may not involve a jury decision.

It's patently clear that Chris Nyst writes with a vast background in the Australian legal system behind him. He nails the dialogue and ideology of the career criminal perfectly and even captures the contempt felt by the police for both the defendant and his solicitor with admirable precision. Added to this is a deft touch when exploring the more delicate introspective moments that defines the all important motivating factors required by Michael to make the momentous decision to take on the against-the-odds case before him. Nyst passes the credibility test with flying colours.

Cop This! is a fierce legal thriller that I felt I connected with emotionally, drawn into the story by feelings of dismay over some of the crimes that were perpetrated and, I suppose, a hatred towards a couple of the characters. That right there tells me that Chris Nyst has succeeded in writing a totally convincing thriller that succeeds in entertaining while making a rousing social statement.