The Unit, on sale soon

Cover design by Matt Battaglia

Here is the cover of my first effort, at a novel. Mark Twain once said, “Write what you know.” Contemporary authors have pooh-poohed the idea as being too limiting. I maintain the only limiting factor is their myopic view of the world around them. I was a cop for most of my adult life; it is what I know. 

Most readers are familiar with police stories; in the newspaper, on the TV news, TV shows, movies, novels and short stories. Most readers are convinced they know cops and cop stories. To write another cop story is to play to one of the toughest audiences any author can run across.

I admit I am not reinventing the wheel. I hope that I have approached the “wheel” from a different direction and in the process show what my fellow narcs and I know, that the reader did not. 

Hopefully, the book will be available on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook, after June 1st, 2017. Buy the book. Help a retired cop so that he can afford a better brand of Scotch.

In the late 80’s Reagan declared war on drugs, nobody told the officers in the UNIT that he was just kidding. One day Pete and company are on patrol writing tickets and driving a patrol car. The next day they find themselves sent to a new investigative unit, a narcotics task force. Bad tempered Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police populate a new investigative unit with their malcontents, screwups and problem children without a thought to future success. Reminiscent of an Uncle Remus tale the volunteers climb out of the “briar patch,” learn their trade and get down to work. They find out working dope is the most fun a cop can have with their clothes on.

In any game, there are winners and losers. In the drug game, losers die. The former patrol officers assigned to the UNIT, who thought they had seen it all, realize that in the drug world they had not seen anything. Adam-12 was never like this. Confronted with liars, cheats, backstabbers and other nefarious characters, before leaving the police station, they go out into the real world. There they learn a new language and new math.

The investigators find out that nothing happens in a vacuum. Dope is not just a commodity; it is a power multiplier. A fry cook is just a fry cook at the local hamburger joint, unless he is the “connection,”  then his status rises appreciably. Old, fat, and bald is no way to attract hard-bodies. Grow hair and lose fifty pounds instantly; just lay out a few lines of cocaine for the lovelies. Drugs lead to money,  sex, and power commensurate with possessor’s ability to use it.

The author was a police officer for almost thirty years. He has worked patrol, training, and investigations. He has supervised both patrol and investigative units. Last fifteen years he was assigned to a multi-agency, multijurisdictional narcotics task force. This book is a work of fiction any resemblance to actual events and people is entirely coincidental.