I selected the five works below, as each highlights different themes explored in my latest work. Taken together, this collection delivers a well-rounded, multi-dimensional view into a world that is often simplified in popular culture but far more complex, courageous, and human than most people realize. These books illuminate different facets of law enforcement—from the raw courage required in moments of crisis to the resourcefulness demanded in prolonged investigations.
Above all, these works stand out for their honesty and realism, revealing both the triumphs and the tolls of a career committed to protecting others. Together, they provide readers with a deeper appreciation of the people, the pressures, and the evolving landscape of modern law enforcement.
Michael Daly provides a very human take on the rigors and realities members of enforcement face in America’s largest city.
Daly, an award-winning journalist, masterfully knits together such riveting accounts of officers who served during New York’s most turbulent eras, much as I do in my book, pulling together a well-rounded effort from these dramatic settings to the human accounts of those who served.
Daly’s characters are not one-dimensional, but real people navigating really impossible situations, facing physical and emotional risk. These narratives are rife with moral complexities, personal sacrifices, and harrowing twists and turns.
Daly is at his best presenting these stories with very real, empathetic prose. We feel for these characters and lament the missed family milestones, the physical pain, the emotional strife that is just so relentless.
Yet Daly’s work is as engrossing as it is entertaining, providing poignant moments of humor, compassion, and bravery that smack of such authenticity it truly brings you behind the badge and into the heart of what it means to be a member of law enforcement.
Ultimately, this work stands out as both an honest account of sacrifice and a celebration of the people who help safeguard the heartbeat of New York.
NEW YORK'S FINEST is the story of a city's transformation through the tireless efforts of Detective Steven McDonald, Nurse Justiniano, Jack Maple, and a host of hero cops-including the great niece of Jazz Age great Josephine Baker-the finest of The Finest.
The son and grandson of cops, Officer McDonald was shot and paralyzed from the neck down while on patrol in 1986. The doctors said that if he did survive, he would be better off dead. It was then he came under the care of one Nurse Nina Justiniano. Where the teenage gunman was produced by the worst of Harlem's…
Even if Retired NYPD Detective Thomas Dades didn’t introduce me to my co-author Anthony Nelson, I’d still highly recommend this gripping, behind-the-scenes account of one of the most shocking and consequential corruption investigations in NYPD history.
This work dives into the day-to-day work of putting together a case against two of the most corrupt police officers in New York City history: Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, a.k.a. the “Mafia Cops.”
It is the compelling story you can’t help but marvel at the investigative tenacity, political crosswinds navigated by prosecutors and investigators, personal costs and professional risks, and the sheer amount of time and effort needed to deliver justice.
Friends of the Family is different from many law enforcement books in that Dades and Vecchione are so honest and open about their investigative odyssey, and along for the ride, the reader begins to appreciate the humanity of these good cops and the fortitude they brought to bear when faced with the worst kind of corruption.
Friends of the Family will make you mad, but it will also make you proud. Most of all, it will tell you a truth you need to hear: there are many members of law enforcement who will always refuse to sit idly by and will never turn a blind eye to corruption and malfeasance.
This title offers an inside look at the most notorious case to rock the New York Police Department - the story of two NYPD cops who moonlighted as mob hit men - told by the cop and DA investigator who solved New York's coldest case, with never-before-released documents and information.
David Simon’s Homicide stands as one of the most honest and most vivid looks at police work ever put on paper.
Simon drags us into this violent and chaotic world as few could, based on a year he spent alongside detectives in the Baltimore Police Department’s homicide unit. This insider access produces an immersive experience that unfolds in dramatic fashion.
What absolutely leaps off the page is the weight of the implications of such violent crimes and what it demands of the detectives investigating. These are men and women gripped in a desperate vice, toiling relentlessly in the darkest corners of the city, absorbing grief, frustration, and exhaustion while trying to bring answers to families who are desperate for them.
Simon doesn’t overdramatize the work. He doesn’t need to. He brings us inside the grind: sleepless nights, leads that don’t pan out, political machinations, and the quiet toll the constant exposure to death and depravity takes—not just on detectives, but on their families and personal lives. At the same time, Simon captures what keeps them going: loyalty to one another, gallows humor they use as armor, stubborn determination, and those inspiring moments when justice prevails.
The strength of the book lies in its character studies. The detectives come across as fully human—intelligent, savvy, yet human and flawed, beaten down, compassionate and committed—with the victims never treated as statistics.
From the creator of HBO's The Wire, the classic book about homicide investigation that became the basis for the hit television show
The scene is Baltimore. Twice every three days another citizen is shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned to death. At the center of this hurricane of crime is the city's homicide unit, a small brotherhood of hard men who fight for whatever justice is possible in a deadly world.
David Simon was the first reporter ever to gain unlimited access to a homicide unit, and this electrifying book tells the true story of a year on the violent streets of…
Thematically, my book explores the evolution of the FBI during its most transformative decades. This exceptional work takes us deeper into one area where the FBI can bring to bear remarkable capabilities unlike any other agency: the introduction of Criminal Profiling.
Douglas delivers a rare insider’s account as one of the FBI’s original profilers in ways that are as informative as they are provocative, all within the harrowing high-stakes context of pursuing some of the most heinous and ultra-violent criminals imaginable.
Douglas wisely balances this complex, historical, technique-driven accounting with narrative portrayals rife with real consequences that this select group of trailblazing investigators absorbed due to such intimate immersion pursuing these worst-of-the-worst criminal minds. The sheer emotional weight and toll on them are stunning, heightening the sense of debt we as a society owe to them for their invaluable service.
These sacrifices underscore the reality that protecting and serving for law enforcement at times means exposure to the darkest elements of human nature.
Readers of True Crime who appreciate the intricacies of investigative techniques will truly marvel at this work, as Douglas masterfully balances exceptional storytelling with technical details that underscore the irreplaceable expertise the FBI delivers, day in and day out.
Discover the classic, behind-the-scenes chronicle of John E. Douglas’ twenty-five-year career in the FBI Investigative Support Unit, where he used psychological profiling to delve into the minds of the country’s most notorious serial killers and criminals.
In chilling detail, the legendary Mindhunter takes us behind the scenes of some of his most gruesome, fascinating, and challenging cases—and into the darkest recesses of our worst nightmares.
During his twenty-five year career with the Investigative Support Unit, Special Agent John Douglas became a legendary figure in law enforcement, pursuing some of the most notorious and sadistic serial…
In my book, a teenage Anthony Nelson is inspired to pursue a career at the FBI by an advertisement presenting the bureau as the hardest job imaginable. Heather Mac Donald offers up a powerful, data-driven examination that dramatically underscores this premise.
Drawing on meticulous research, dogged field reporting, and interviews with an amazing cross-section of officers across the country, Mac Donald dispels myths as she reveals context and far-too-often-unseen challenges police confront daily.
Today’s members of law enforcement face dramatic rises in violence, harsh public scrutiny, and undulating politically driven pressures, coupled with severe emotional and physical demands.
Unfortunately, there is a steady undertone of the public maligning of law enforcement evident today that Mac Donald plumbs in depth. What Mac Donald does is inject into this conversation undeniable data and dramatic details to bridge that wide delta between on-the-ground realities and public misperceptions, which ultimately assault the psyche of the brave men and women of law enforcement.
Mac Donald wisely humanizes this dynamic through interviews with officers grappling with increasing (often unattainable) expectations and the tragedy of diminishing public trust.
I admire Mac Donald for her legwork, depicting through a combination of real-world anecdotes, bolstered by statistical analysis, she brings the consequences home of how the stress, long hours, psychological burden, emotional abuse, and sheer weight of it all so terribly impacts those on the front lines.
And through it all, Mac Donald delivers a steady drumbeat of inspiration, shining much-needed light on these men and women who hold our community together, rush toward violence and danger, and suffer for these actions.
This work, more than anything, clearly demonstrates that this is such a difficult profession, demanding, debilitating, and more deserving of grace and patience, and admiration from society.
Violent crime has been rising sharply in many American cities after two decades of decline. Homicides jumped nearly 17 percent in 2015 in the largest 50 cities, the biggest one-year increase since 1993. The reason is what Heather Mac Donald first identified nationally as the "Ferguson effect": Since the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, officers have been backing off of proactive policing, and criminals are becoming emboldened. This book expands on Mac Donald's groundbreaking and controversial reporting on the Ferguson effect and the criminal-justice system. It deconstructs the central narrative of the Black Lives Matter…
Empire City Under Siege shares true stories of an FBI Special Agent spanning three tumultuous decades in New York City. Starting as an undercover operative investigating Mafia hijackers in Red Hook, Anthony John Nelson offers a gripping insider’s look at the bureau’s largest field office during one of its most transformative eras. From narcotics stings in Miami during the height of the Cocaine Cowboys to stolen Picassos and late-night rides with NYPD legend Kenneth “Kenny” McCabe, Nelson recounts some of the most impactful cases of the pre-Internet age.
Featuring first-hand accounts from agents, officers, and prosecutors, this book honors the courage and commitment of those who fought to restore order, protect the innocent, and reclaim a city once on the brink.
