Pocket Notebook

A darkly humorous tale of an out-of-control policeman experiencing a spectacular breakdown.

Stuns like a truncheon, grips like a pair of handcuffs, crackles with charge like a taser. Reading Pocket Notebook is like being caught up in a riot: exhilarating, terrifying - it has an unstoppable momentum.

[This] arresting tale doesn't miss a beat...Jacob Smith has got a bad marriage, a penchant for steroids, a violent temper and a foot fetish. None of this would be particularly unusual if he was a villain - but, in Mike Thomas's debut novel, he's one of the policemen. And he's got a gun...While Pocket Notebook might become cult reading in police circles, it certainly isn't about to become a recruit training manual. This is an enjoyable black comedy that builds to an exciting climax.

Pocket Notebook is most certainly not run of the mill... Mike Thomas can write very well indeed...he's come up with a cracker of a read...Needless to say, Smith is heading for an especially bloody end. It's who he'll take down with him that provides the suspense, and the horror.

Enough black laughs to keep you turning the pages.

A fantastic debut from real-life PC Mike Thomas...Written with blistering brio and fantastic energy, this shows much promise.

Mike Thomas is a 38-year-old serving police officer and has been a freelance writer for several years, publishing travel articles, web shorts and short fiction. Currently in the final throes of his Masters degree, he is married with two children. Pocket Notebook is his first novel.

Meet Jacob Smith, your good-old British policeman. But Jacob's no ordinary beat bobby. He's a tactical firearms officer; a handsome, popular, financially secure specialist. He's a connoisseur of fine cinema, who also enjoys his expansive collection of do-it-yourself 'art' DVD's (the latest of which was 'borrowed' during a drugs warrant). And he likes to keep himself in shape, hence the large steroid habit - and the even larger amount of money he owes his dealer. And did we mention he's partial to women'sfeet? The girlfriend who's desperately trying to shrug him off? Or what about his parents' dark past? 
 
And now his family and friends are starting to worry... and his police superiors are increasingly taking notice of the way he conducts himself. Jake's a very busy boy. And life is about to get even more complicated... 
 
Pocket Notebook is the brilliant debut novel from serving police officer Mike Thomas. An angry black comedy, it follows Jacob's very public fall from grace, all of which he meticulously records in his police notebook.

Mike Thomas

A warts and all look at modern policing on the frontline, Thomas pulls no punches as modern British life is played out in all its absurd glory … Dark and hilarious, Ugly Bus is never short of compelling.

Ugly Bus is a blend of darkness and humour … Just when you think it has no more twists and turns to offer, the novel's final scene is startlingly revelatory about who and what a particular person is … there are characters here whose story could well be continued in a third novel … Bring it on, I say, provided it has the tension, momentum, observational keenness and dry wit of this one.

I think what struck me more than anything else was how believable everything was and Thomas' brilliance in setting scenes, creating characters who I felt I could genuinely see and relentless black humour, darkness and pure grit. It's sweary, it's dirty and it's real.

Boxing day, late shift. 
On duty: Flub, Dullas, Vince and Thrush. 
The new guy: Sergeant Martin Finch. 
 
What begins as a routine shift policing a football match rapidly descends into chaos. But how far will new guy Martin go to fit in? One thing is for certain: the lives of everyone on the Ugly Bus – and the life of a young woman drawn into their orbit – will change for ever.

Ugly Bus

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Praise for Ugly Bus

A warts and all look at modern policing on the frontline, Thomas pulls no punches as modern British life is played out in all its absurd glory … Dark and hilarious, Ugly Bus is never short of compel ...

Ugly Bus is a blend of darkness and humour … Just when you think it has no more twists and turns to offer, the novel's final scene is startlingly revelatory about who and what a particular perso ...

I think what struck me more than anything else was how believable everything was and Thomas' brilliance in setting scenes, creating characters who I felt I could genuinely see and relentless black humour, darkness a ...

A warts and all look at modern policing on the frontline, Thomas pulls no punches as modern British life is played out in all its absurd glory … Dark and hilarious, Ugly Bus is never short of compel ...

Ugly Bus is a blend of darkness and humour … Just when you think it has no more twists and turns to offer, the novel's final scene is startlingly revelatory about who and what a particular perso ...

I think what struck me more than anything else was how believable everything was and Thomas' brilliance in setting scenes, creating characters who I felt I could genuinely see and relentless black humour, darkness a ...

A warts and all look at modern policing on the frontline, Thomas pulls no punches as modern British life is played out in all its absurd glory … Dark and hilarious, Ugly Bus is never short of compel ...

Ugly Bus is a blend of darkness and humour … Just when you think it has no more twists and turns to offer, the novel's final scene is startlingly revelatory about who and what a particular perso ...

I think what struck me more than anything else was how believable everything was and Thomas' brilliance in setting scenes, creating characters who I felt I could genuinely see and relentless black humour, darkness a ...

Books by Mike Thomas

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