No Comment

Jess McDonald was a true crime junkie and Line of Duty sofa sleuth with a strong sense of injustice. Under a year later, she was a fully qualified detective in the London Metropolitan Police.The Direct Entry Scheme was a controversial new programme devised to tackle a recruitment crisis in the force. Jess was one of a hundred of the first rookies to go through an intense twenty-week training course, bypass time in uniform and fly solo as a detective investigating serious crime.In Jess’s incisive, original and eye-opening memoir she takes us from bizarre training rituals to harrowing encounters with the perpetrators and victims of violent crime against women and girls, exploring what it really means to be responsible for ‘keeping London safe for everyone’.We see the immense pressure she is put under as she struggles to adapt to her extraordinary new circumstances – and weighs up whether she, or any of the other Direct Entry detectives - can survive in the force as it is.

Probably the most important book on the state of British policing you’ll ever read. Written with candour and balance, Jess McDonald lifts the lid on why cultural change is nigh on impossible in the Metropolitan Police and how the justice system conspires against the most vulnerable. A brilliant read which should be compulsory for all Chief Officers if they are serious about understanding what life is really like at the coal face -- Graham Bartlett
I was gripped by this unflinching close-up account of life as a new Met detective. As a female outsider, McDonald offers a rare insight into the current state of the UK’s biggest and most controversial police force - a world usually painfully resistant to scrutiny. No Comment is essential reading for anyone interested in the questions being asked of the Met today, and its passionate call for change could hardly be more timely -- Katherine Faulkner
It's an excellent insight into modern policing and how the system fails to protect victims, communities and the people who work in the job. Jess writes about complex, dark subjects with humanity and warmth. It's a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered what happens after they've called 999 and a shocking indictment of a system not fit for purpose -- Angela Kirwin, author of Criminal: How Our Prisons Are Failing Us All

Jess McDonald grew up in Cheshire, attended Durham University and had a huge range of jobs before she turned 30. Then the big one. At the age of 31, Jess was one of the very first people to gain a place on the Met Police’s controversial Direct Entry Detective scheme and, after just 5 months of training, started work as a Detective Constable tackling serious crime on a busy east London borough.

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