October 2021 Value Read - Jailbird by Caro Savage

[Beth]

Just on chapter 11. She does a good job describing the scary and depressing location!

[Beth]

However, there are discrepancies. For example the author notes the prison inmate are from the lower socioeconomic groups
And then in subsequent chapters those same inmates are talking anatomy (capillaries) etc and it doesn’t match

[Bill]

Bailey mentions an anatomy text she’s reading. I loved the audio reader’s pronunciation of ‘capillaries’ with the stress on the second syllable. The question I have is how the drug gang are acquiring heaps of banknotes where the inmates’ sole currency is cigarettes from the canteen.

[Beth]

I haven’t gotten to the heaps of bank notes, Bill. But am wondering where the guards are when three inmates are creating a marijuana fog in a cell that no one but Bailey discovers? Are there not roving guard checks?

I am also wondering if a group like ABC would admit Bailey on the basis of one favour in such a short period of time

The story doesn’t ring true, for me. But then I can’t say I have any life experience to compare to!

[Bill]

An undercover police officer is one of the best main characters. Tana French’s Cassie Maddox in The Likeness is my favourite but I’m also fond of Sharon Bolton’s Lacey Flint and Harry Bingham’s Fiona Griffiths. The situation of a law officer impersonating a criminal generates continual suspense even when nothing especially perilous is occurring and is guaranteed to create dodgy situations, especially as infiltrating a gang is likely to require willingness to commit a crime, even a murder. The basic rule is “never break cover”; the undercover cop must behave precisely in the character of the assumed identity. I felt that failure to observe that rule was a weakness in The Likeness, Cassie’s identity as Lexie sacrificed for the convenience of the plot. In Caro Savage’s Jailbird, Bailey Morgan maintains her cover almost till the very end, though her impersonation of an inmate in a women’s prison to discover the source of the drugs being smuggled into HMP Foxbrook leads to some sticky situations with the Ace Blade Crew – the powerful prison gang.

A general rule in such cases is that every big operation must be an inside job, so Bailey’s identity must be unknown even to the prison admin. Bailey’s only outside contact is with her police supervisor using the cover of a dummy solicitor’s office. Bailey is suffering from PTSD from a previous assignment in which she was suspected and horrible tortured, but she accepted the assignment because her friend and colleague Alice was murdered undercover in the prison.

Compared to French’s or even Bingham’s novels, Jailbird is a straightforward thriller with few literary pretensions and not much attempt at psychological or atmospheric realism. Besides drug smugglers and addicts, brutal prison bullies, hilarious Claude van Damme movie cultists, corrupt prison officers (some easier to identify than others), we also have a serial murderer with a hair fetish. Whenever the author exhausts one plot line, she starts another one. The book seemed long for a thriller, but despite some holes in the plot (I couldn’t figure out how anyone made a profit smuggling drugs when the inmates used cigarettes for currency) I was impressed at how Savage brought everything together. Enough loose ends are left over for sequels (so far the author has given us two) for readers who wish to pursue Bailey’s adventures further. I probably shall not, but as an undemanding pastime with an appealing principal character, Jailbird was a pleasant choice.