The Girl for the Job: True Stories From My Life As An Undercover Cop

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The Girl for the Job is an exciting, intriguing and at times jaw-dropping memoir perfect for fans of true crime and dramas like Line of Duty. Jess Connolly does it again with a book that will get you fired up to run on mission where you are at! You Are The Girl For The Job takes readers through “six steps towards abundant obedience,” helping you to refocus on your strengths, weaknesses, passions, and action steps. You may be thinking the title implies this is a book that sugar-coats our approach to mission and intends to leave you feeling nothing but good feels, but this book is meaningful, honest, and will remind you that our capacity only comes from recognizing God’s glory and abundance. In 2014 she got a call that would set her on a whole new career path and today she has found happiness and stability with fellow Hunted investigator Ben Owen.

This book was absolutely right up my street! I love these type of books and this was no exception! Absolutely brilliant read. I just love real life stories of police and being written by a female this was great! Going undercover isn’t for everyone,’ says Danni, 38. ‘My life was full of danger every day and I couldn’t tell my friends or family what I did for a living. My mum didn’t even know! There were definitely times I was in too deep but somehow I always got away with it. Now I’m prepared to share the secrets of my double life for the first time.’ We are the girls for the job because of the God of all capacity who not only calls us but equips us, and dwells within us, enabling us to carry out His plans.”How extraordinary to read of finishing schools where girls learned to cook, supported by legions of maids who did the washing up Danni loved her work, revelling in playing the part of a dumb Essex girl while secretly gathering evidence for criminal prosecutions. Her commanders consistently praised her courage, skills and success rate. God wants to use us all, but we have to let Him do the heavy lifting. We have to believe that He is who He says His, while believing we are who He says we are. To be fair, there are some horror stories here: the passes, the belittling, the throwing of ink wells at secretaries’ heads. On the other hand, it was discombobulating to read her determinedly optimistic speculations about “bottom pinching” – such behaviour had died out by the 1980s, at least in the office of Harper’s & Queen, where she worked – in the week that we learned that one in three female NHS surgeons in England have been sexually assaulted by male colleagues in the past five years. In the end, I must admit, I hardly knew what to think about this book. I love Maxtone Graham’s curiosity, wit and nose for eccentricity; I’m obsessed with the De La Warr Laboratories, and long to put them in a novel. But ultimately, Jobs for the Girls is just too horribly partial for me to love it as I did British Summer Time Begins.

Jess Connolly’s precious release, Dance Stand Run was amazing, her co-written book Wild & Free was great, and it is clear God has not only gifted her as a writer, but also with such relevant words to write, this book included.

It’s worth noting that Jess writes in a very authentic and honest way so it feels like you’re sitting in the room with her. I appreciate the way she shares both her past and current struggles/failures, not white-washing anything to make herself look more “qualified”.

At 21 she fell pregnant and hastily married her daughter’s father – it was a disastrous relationship which ended up in the courtroom with Danni fighting for custody. Years later she found herself pregnant again, this time with the son of another undercover cop. It was while she was pregnant the second time that she suffered a personal trauma which forced her to take time off and reassess her priorities. And after a successful decoy operation to catch a sexual predator she decided to take a career break. Little did she realise then that she would never return to policing. She had changed, and so, it seems, had her colleagues. The Girl for the Job is an exciting, intriguing and at times jaw-dropping memoir from one the UK’s most successful female undercover police officers. In her honest, warm and gripping memoir, Danni also reveals why she left the police, how she found a new career (and love) on C4’s Hunted – and why the thrill of covert work still pulls her into private investigations.For over a decade Danni Brooke was one of the most effective female undercover cops in the UK, one of a very small number of women in the Met’s elite unit. She was so successful at taking down criminals that she was seconded to forces around the country. I, personally, am not a fan of The Message (which is a pastor’s paraphrasing of the Bible), let alone it being used as a translation, and Jess, like many others, uses it frequently. I’d much rather have actual translations of Scripture referenced, like ESV or New King James (NKJV). However, I do appreciate that she capitalizes pronouns when referring to God and Christ; this shows reverence and there’s a surprising amount of Christian authors who don’t do this. Unfortunately, a few chapters in, her cadence, her tone turns preacher style and continues the rest of the book. Suddenly I felt much less like I was "reading" a book and felt like I was sitting in a full audience. There is an odd pause between words, a strange staccato, and sometimes she gets really fast almost out of breath. I just found myself only being able to take it in doses and wanting to get through it, rather than savor it. I would have appreciated a heartfelt reading more calmly. Let the material speak for itself, because the message is good. For the first time Danni is ready to lift the lid on her secret life as a covert officer. She joined the Met and was recruited as an undercover cop early in her career. Playing the role of dumb Essex girl, she was so successful at taking down criminals she was seconded to forces around the country. Her personal life was less successful – pregnant at twenty-one, she had a disastrous relationship with the father of her child and had to fight for custody. A traumatic second pregnancy later in her career caused her to reassess her priorities.