So, farewell then RUC. Chris Ryder's update of his 1989 book is something of an epitaph to the loved/hated Force. It arrives just as the dismantling has begun and the old loyalist title is being replaced by the anodyne Police Service of Northern Ireland. This latest edition is perfectly timed to coincide with Chris Patten's Commission on Policing, which consigns the RUC to history. Some might consider this book too benign in its treatment of the subject, but it is still the best and most complete history of the RUC. So, too, the account of the sufferings of so many police families would move all but the hardest hearts.