Police, Punk, and Crosswords: An Interview with Tony White
I think that’s a reality of policing. Not just undercover policing. The job requires a kind of professional mask, a professional, and procedural carapace that an experienced police officer will adjust according to the situation. They’re well trained in such procedures. And I wanted to reflect on that kind of life. To come back to Javier Cercas’ idea of the ‘blind spot’ briefly, undercover police, whatever they were doing, were putting themselves in positions of extreme risk: risk of discovery, violence, and in some cases, risk of death. And they were also breaking the law. But they were doing these terrible things and putting themselves at risk because – in their eyes – they were the good guys. Rex, I’m sure, would think of himself as one of the good guys. But the evidence doesn’t bear that up, you know?
Tony White interviewed about his new novel, Phantom at the Feast, by James Riley.