True Blue
Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them
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4.1 • 24 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
After September 11, 2001 Las Vegas Police Sergeant Randy Sutton began soliciting writing from law enforcement officers-his goal being to bridge the gap between the police and those they serve, with a book that offers a broad and thoughtful look at the many facets of police life. Hundreds of active and former officers responded from all over the United States: men and women from big cities and small towns, some who had written professionally, but most for the first time. Sutton culled the selections into five categories: The Beat, Line of Duty, War Stories, Officer Down, and Ground Zero.
The result is True Blue, a collection of funny, charming, exciting, haunting stories about murder investigations, missing children, bungling burglars, car chases, lonely and desperate shut-ins, routine traffic stops, officers killed in the line of duty, and the life-changing events of September 11. Here, officers reveal their emotions-fear and pride, joy and disgust, shame and love-as they recount the defining moments of their careers. In these stories, the heart and soul behind the badge shines through in unexpected ways. True Blue will change the way we think about the deeply human realm of police service.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This compulsively readable anthology of true-life, first person stories proves once again that cops have fascinating tales to tell. The pieces span the range of police experience, from light-hearted reminiscences--a cop pretends to use his radar gun to exterminate the space aliens lurking in a crazy man's attic--to tearful eulogies to partners killed in the line of duty. Most of the staple scenarios of police drama are represented, including interrogation tricks that get criminals to confess, harrowing drive-bys, hostage situations, bloody double-murder crime scenes, child-abduction man-hunts, predators who molest children but beat the system, and even a sirens-blaring escort to the hospital for a woman in labor. The contributing cops are mostly amateur writers, and their style ranges from just-the-facts-ma'am procedural to overwrought noir ("winos, junkies, lizard-eyed pimps and their sweating whores lolled in doorways, waiting for the parade of street carrion that brought the next trick and the next high"). The deftly edited narratives are fast-paced and pithy, but the most affecting stories are the quieter ones--a man hit by a bus, a senile woman distraught over her husband's death, a quadriplegic trying to get help for his brother's seizures--in which cops contemplate humanity in extremis.
