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1 Burnside Crime- Cops and Police Stories

This title in other editions

A Cop's Life: True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge

by Randy Sutton

A Cop's Life: True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A COP'S LIFE...

is about a midnight call that brings you to a grandmother battered to death in her bed while three punks go running and laughing through the night....

A COP'S LIFE...

is about the man in the Ninja outfit who absorbs a full magazine of hollowpoint bullets and still raises his gun to kill you...

A COP'S LIFE...

is about the honor student, the pride and hope of his family, hanging from a speaker wire, or the baby who dies in your arms, or the people who think you're a hero--or the devil...

In this powerful collection of tales from the frontlines, Las Vegas police sergeant Randy Sutton goes beyond the neon into the dark corners of society, putting us into the driver's seat of his cruiser and a job that ricochets from moments of sheer terror to coffee-fueled boredom--with stops on the way at every conceivable act of human folly and depravity. With a poet's touch, and the unflinching realism of a crime scene photograph, A COP'S LIFE is the ultimate depiction of the hardest job there is.

"Brilliantly evokes the tormented inner life of the average cop."

--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A compelling, sometimes wrenching, always insightful read that takes us into the soul of a working cop."

--John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author of The Second Chair and The Motive

Review:

"Veteran Las Vegas police sergeant Sutton, who edited the acclaimed True Blue, brilliantly evokes the tormented inner life of the average cop with 20 short but powerful autobiographical sketches. With a novelist's skill, Sutton makes fresh situations that could, in lesser hands, come across as hoary clichs. The broken lives Sutton encounters — the suicides, gangbangers, the mentally ill, the burnt-out officers tempted to eat their guns and the innocents in the wrong place at the wrong time — come vividly to life. The memorable figures include a boy who attempts to protect the grandmother who cares for him from violent punks, and a young girl whose trust in the cynical Sutton helps him gain perspective on his job. The author doesn't minimize the temptation to respond with force that is often the officer's instinctive response to mindless cruelty, and unflinchingly portrays the stresses that plague him when his best efforts to protect or save lives fell short — stresses that led him to consider ending his life. Some may find the closing section, a fictional Christmas parable, slightly sappy, but that doesn't diminish Sutton's achievement in enabling the reader to pound the pavement in his shoes. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

This 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 9/11 offers a broad and thoughtful look at the many facets of police life.

Synopsis:

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.

About the Author

Randy Sutton is a Senior Sergeant at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Nevada. A member of the Screen Actors Guild, he has appeared in several big screen movies and HBO movies including Casino, Fools Rush In, and The Road Home. On television, he has appeared on COPS, Americas Most Wanted, and Las Vegas.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780312338961
Subtitle:
True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge
Editor:
Wells, Cassie
Editor:
Wells, Cassie
Author:
Sutton, Randy
Author:
Wells, Cassie
Publisher:
St. Martin's Press
Subject:
General
Subject:
General True Crime
Subject:
Law Enforcement
Edition Description:
Trade Cloth
Publication Date:
20050701
Binding:
Electronic book text in proprietary or open standard format
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
224
Dimensions:
8.25 x 5.50 in

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Related Aisles

A Cop's Life: True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$12.50 In Stock
Product details 224 pages St. Martin's Press - English 9780312338961 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Veteran Las Vegas police sergeant Sutton, who edited the acclaimed True Blue, brilliantly evokes the tormented inner life of the average cop with 20 short but powerful autobiographical sketches. With a novelist's skill, Sutton makes fresh situations that could, in lesser hands, come across as hoary clichs. The broken lives Sutton encounters — the suicides, gangbangers, the mentally ill, the burnt-out officers tempted to eat their guns and the innocents in the wrong place at the wrong time — come vividly to life. The memorable figures include a boy who attempts to protect the grandmother who cares for him from violent punks, and a young girl whose trust in the cynical Sutton helps him gain perspective on his job. The author doesn't minimize the temptation to respond with force that is often the officer's instinctive response to mindless cruelty, and unflinchingly portrays the stresses that plague him when his best efforts to protect or save lives fell short — stresses that led him to consider ending his life. Some may find the closing section, a fictional Christmas parable, slightly sappy, but that doesn't diminish Sutton's achievement in enabling the reader to pound the pavement in his shoes. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Synopsis" by , This 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 9/11 offers a broad and thoughtful look at the many facets of police life.
"Synopsis" by ,
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.

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