Nights in armour - Samuel Thompson

A policeman's lot is not a happy one or so the song goes,but throw in the IRA, loyalist paramilitaries, the British army and aRepublican hunger strike, and it gets a whole lot worse. Carson Clarke, JimReid and their colleagues in the RUC are charged with policing a provincialtown in Derry, arguably the most dangerous environment in the developed world.They're trained to deal with car accidents and shoplifters, but history andpolitics just keep getting in the way as a series of shootings and bombingsbring Northern Ireland to the brink of civil war. Their job gradually becomes astruggle to survive, and just keeping sane gets difficult as, bit by bit, theirworld collapses around them.

Written with the authenticity of someone who served as apolice officer in Northern Ireland at the time, and who lived through andexperienced similar events. This book was also written very close in time tothe historical events and carries the authenticity of the dialogue and thinkingemployed by the characters.