Although still traumatised by the accidental viewing of a gory police photo when he was a child, the author has always wondered why he was not more like his father, regarded as a hero cop. Paul Verhoeven, describes himself as a genteel hipster fop who reviews video games for a living, having studied film at university and at 35 had spent his career bouncing between lots of ‘weird artsy’ jobs.

When his father offers to tell him the stories of his policing life, in the hope that a saturation of detail will minimise the importance of that one gory photo, it seems like the right thing to do.

What follows is a rollicking account of a young police officer in Sydney in the 1980s, starting with his time at the police academy.

Paul Verhoeven has a great turn of phrase but because this memoir is based on taped conversations with his father … with some of them reproduced verbatim … it is difficult to know if some of the funniest sections were spoken by John or paraphrased by Paul.

There are accounts of more senior police officers taking shortcuts in their dealings with suspects; getting together for clandestine drinks on duty; and working in that ill-lit zone between effective and ethical to achieve a result. John, as a rookie cop, absorbed all that without being prepared to take part. He had had a slight yearning to become a detective, but after seeing the behaviour of some detectives at the time, he vowed never to aspire to that side of policing.

It’s an intriguing read, unfinished in many ways, as the account ends with John Verhoeven about to transfer from general duties to forensics. Watch this space.

Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville