Blue Blood
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'Superb. The most stunning memoir ever written about the cop world'
Joseph Wambaugh
'Beautiful and inspiring, terrifying and heartbreaking'
James Frey
'More chilling than even the most realistic cop dramas on TV'
People
'A great book...with the testimonial force equal to that of Michael Herr's Dispatches' Time
Blue Blood is the fast-paced, insider story of Edward Conlon's career in the New York Police Department. Conlon tells of his first days as a rookie, walking a beat in the south Bronx through his time in narcotics and his ascent to gold shield detective. Conlon is the product of generations involved in law enforcement, good cops and bad, and he paints a vivid portrait of the teeming street life of the city, in all its horror and splendour. It's all here: adrenaline-fuelled chases, toxic police politics, crackhead informants and police camaraderie. The pace is relentless, the stories hypnotic, the scope nothing less than monumental.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This gripping account of his life in the NYPD by a Harvard-educated detective will evoke deserved comparisons to other true crime classics, like David Simon's Homicide and Kurt Eichenwald's The Informant. The son of an FBI agent, Conlon began his career patrolling housing projects in the Bronx before moving on to narcotics work and eventually getting his gold shield. He seamlessly weaves in family stories, autobiography and a history of corruption and reform in the legendary police force, but the heart of the book is his compelling and detailed rendering of the daily grind of the average policeman, a refreshing antidote to car chases and running gun fights that are a staple of popular culture's depiction. There are dozens of fascinating supporting characters on both sides of the law, including pitiful addicts and career criminals hoping to become informants, devoted public servants, good bosses and petty bureaucrats. The narrative spans the violent early 1990s, touches on the controversial Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo cases, and features an evocative account of the grim recovery at the Fresh Kills landfill, sifting through remains of the twin towers, where circling birds provided clues to human remains. Even those with a more cynical view of the realities of police work will be impressed by the warts-and-all portrait Conlon provides, and his gifts as a writer will doubtless attract a wide audience.
