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Youth is supposed to be the best time of your life. But if you enter adulthood during the savage 90s, it can turn into your personal hell.

Roberts Bergs had to start making difficult choices early in life. With few options to choose from, he settles for available ones. Beggars cannot be choosers, is his motto.

His coursemates at the Police Academy dip their toes into adulthood while still living in the cocoon of their parental homes. For them, life is about parties, new experiences, and searching for their true self. For Roberts, it’s about poverty, hunger, and not being killed by a crazed drunkard with an axe during a patrol shift.

A patrolman of the Public Order Police patrol battalion isn’t Roberts’s dream job. But it is better than not having one. Trudging through the grim slums of the city, his interest in arts, history, and literature is what sustains him.

He believes in human dignity and freedom of choice. He wants to become a lawyer.

To succeed you must play by the rules. Roberts learns the rules quickly. The system run by the Soviet-era ex-militia officers is a good teacher. Who you know counts for more than your abilities, qualifications, and knowledge. The system also doesn’t tolerate disobedience.

Still, Roberts keeps climbing up the career ladder. The contrast between those who play by the rules and those who believe in honesty and justice becomes starker. Luxury and self-indulgence for the first, and dragging out a miserable existence for the latter.

Roberts has to make more difficult choices. Is it worth it to remain true to his principles? Or is succumbing to the corrupted and merciless system the only way to survive?

Set in Latvia at the end of the first post-Soviet decade, “The Accidental Cop” is a blend of noir crime and police procedural with psychological suspense elements.

My Review:

This novel is based on Latvia having just come out with their independence from the Soviet Union. Crime was everywhere you looked, and that included corrupted police who lined their pockets with wads of money handed over to the high-ranking officers via drug lords. This book is gritty and rightly so. The young police officer had to keep his wits about him in order to survive and climb the ladder to a position he wanted away from the crooked officers above him. If you like a noir type of feel with all of the ruthless deaths and horrific narrative in your book, then you want to read this compelling novel. I don’t want to give away the story or the ending, but this is a five star read.