Prisons, by definition, are full of acknowledged criminals. But there are also staff, some of whom can be manipulated, coerced, corrupted; not many but always likely to be a few. Prisons are also hives of violence and rife with drugs, contraband smuggled in by all possible routes. Monitoring of everyone is necessary and expected, but “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes” has always been a concern. Kennedy Allardyce is the main Information Analyst at HMP Forth Valley, observing CCTV, looking at profiles of inmates and staff, listening to legal phone calls and scanning for illegal mobile phones. She is isolated in her special room because she will also be a potential target for prisoners and, to some extent, for staff. Now she has become an actual target of a crime gang, and her position is compromised because she has fallen for Molly, one of the custodians, but Molly increasingly looks like a suspect. The author has worked within the prison system and the whole ambience of that, inside and outside, is clearly and viscerally exposed in the background in which this story unfolds. The writing is a bit raw, partly because this is the author’s debut, but mainly because it is hard-core (some might call it ‘nitty-gritty’ but it’s really the gritty -even grotty – aspects that predominate. It’s a difficult read for that reason. The characters are all well drawn, but Kennedy is a bit more erratic than one might believe, but she had returned to work after being stabbed so I think it’s excusable. The ending is scrappy but I think it might be setting up for a sequel. Difficult to categorise overall, but I think 4 stars is fair. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I love the setting on this and the incident that happens to Kennedy, the main character, starts the story off really well. I liked the antagonism between the intelligence staff and the prison guards, and the new arrival in Kennedy’s office added to the tension. I did however struggle to engage with the characters, I liked that some chapters were told from the perspective of one of the prisoners however by the end I was questioning whether it added to the story, I think if parts were told from points of view of multiple prisoners it might have worked better. There’s clearly a lot of issues at the prison, beyond what you might expect and the threats on Kennedy felt very real but I just never totally got into this story but I persevered with it only for it to have a total non ending with so much left to be tied up but not in a to be continued style (although I’m assuming there will be a continuation) which just left me frustrated.

I liked the premise of this book with the different angle of an intelligence analyst providing the main character, and it certainly hit the ground running straight into an intelligence briefing and assault. However, in the end, it was a bit too violent and gritty for me without providing many new insights. However, I'm sure there will be many other readers who will enjoy it more and the prospect of a new series to enjoy. Thank you to netgalley and Michael Joseph for an advance copy of this book. 2.5 rounded up to 3.