The Blue Knight

New York Times–Bestselling Author: A novel of a cop on the edge that "capture[s] the excitement, terror, pity, and occasional tedium of police work" (The Boston Globe).

Twenty and two. Those are the numbers turning in the mind of William "Bumper" Morgan: twenty years on the job, two days before he pulls the pin and walks away from it forever. But on the streets of L.A., people look at Bumper like some kind of knight in armor—they've plied him with come-ons, hot tips, and the hard respect a man can't earn anywhere else. Now, with a new job and a good woman waiting for him, a kinky thief terrorizing L.A.'s choice hotels, and a tragedy looming, Bumper Morgan is about to face the only thing that can scare him: the demons he's been hiding behind his bright and shiny badge . . .


Ex-cop-turned-Edgar Award-winning author Joseph Wambaugh forged a new kind of literature with his great early police procedurals. The Blue Knight is Wambaugh at his best—a gritty, luminous, and ultimately stunning story of a street cop on the hardest beat of his life.


"The portrait of Bumper has force and authenticity . . . abounds in vivid vignettes of police life and the Los Angeles streets." —The New York Times

"A bang-up job." —The Boston Globe

"Hard-hitting, tough-talking, utterly realistic." —Publishers Weekly