Una Vida Loca: A Crazy Life

This book is a fiction based on the author's own experiences of being the UK International Crime Liaison Officer in Málaga, southern Spain for eight years.
The story details the everyday life of Detective Chief Inspector Jamie O'Brien, a seasoned career Detective from Merseyside Police who gives up his role as a Branch Commander of a large National Crime Squad Office in the North West of England to working very much on his own as the UK International Crime Liaison Officer in Málaga on the Costa del Sol.
The story catalogues the ups and downs, not just of the complex world of working with the many different Law Enforcement Agencies that operate in southern Spain, but also the twists and turns that he encounters adapting to the Spanish culture, leaning the language, and embracing the local customs.
Away from the hustle and bustle of Costa, and more importantly away from the concentrated areas where the Organised Crime Groups ply their trade and entertain themselves, O'Brien finds the 3,000 year old city of Málaga a haven to both live in and to relax away from the high octane pace of his work.
The book wanders alongside the main protagonist as he discovers the rich cultural delights of Málaga with it's Phoenician, Moorish, Roman, Arabic and Christian histories. The influences of Pablo Ruiz Picasso and Antonio Banderas become more apparent to O'Brien as he wanders throughout the streets and plazas of the old town becoming more entrenched in the soul and heritage of the fascinating city.
He encounters corruption, brutal murders, the highs of successes working with trusted colleagues to arrest the drug traffickers and seize their contraband, but also the lows of being thwarted by the criminal opposition and seeing the damage that they can inflict on those that oppose their nefarious criminal activities.
The story occasionally reverts back to O'Brien's earlier life as a Detective in the UK and he draws comparisons between the two countries operating strategies. The similarities of camaraderie and methodologies are countered by confrontation with the negativity of corruption within the very authorities who are working alongside him. More light heartedly he also sees comparisons to his youth when he was locked away in a junior seminary training to be a Catholic Priest from 11 to 16 years age.
The story tells tales of informants and undercover cops used to penetrate Criminal gangs and the grave dangers that these methods hold. There is also the Official side of the UK abroad in the guise of the local British Consulate and the Madrid Embassy and how the contacts in these little enclaves of the UK were often a lifeline for the Liaison Officer.
His story is interspersed with cultural awakenings, the discovery of how the Spanish Civil war still impacts on modern Spain and his discovery that Bullfighting is still very much alive in Andalucia.
The book starts in 2005 with a late night phone call from a distressed informant who has just witnessed a customer being shot dead on the terrace of his bar and wants Jamie to mobilise the Spanish cops.The conclusion of this storyline is only reached in the final paragraph of the book with a shocking discovery. The title and phrase 'Una Vida Loca' (A crazy Life) originates from an encounter that O'Brien has with a corrupt Spanish Cop and soon becomes relevant to many other parts of his life as it unfolds in southern Spain, experiences such as his brutal exposure to the Bullfight, terrorist atrocities, and ultimately the extreme consequences of the work he is doing in Spain.