Blue Blood

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic journey into the world of a big city cop.
Review: Shootings, stabbings, robberies, stake-outs, walking the beat, cruising in patrol cars, it's all here in this vivid black and blue memoir. Conlon deftly blends prose with cons in a way that most writers would envy. Though the book weighs in at a whopping 2 pounds (560 pages), the rapid-fire stories will enthrall you with the manic world of Conlon's life as a New York city cop.

Like a good cop TV series (NYPD) or the best cop movies (Serpico, French Connection, Narc, Training Day) `Blue Blood' takes you into to a world that for most is both foreign and frightening. Conlon's writing is crackling sharp and rich with the dialogue of all kinds: from criminals, junkies, crack heads and cops. You will feel the frustration that NYPD cops go through; not just from the decrepit criminals they deal with, but, because of the dysfunctional bureaucracy and small minded `brass' that plagues mega-city police departments that harass them. You will realize, as Conlon did, "The job is not your friend." What is amazing is how Conlon and his 37,000 police comrades continue to do their job, a job that this book brilliantly captures.

Those who are enthralled with police stories, those who are fans of TV police shows, and especially those that are considering police work as a profession will feel lucky that Conlon gave them a window into his world. This is the best written big city cop biography in print today. `Blue Blood' is a great book that I highly recommended. 4.5 stars.


Rating:
Summary: A good story bogged down in detail and repetition
Review: I looked forward to reading this book, expecting it to be an insight into the life of an NYPD officer. Well, it's that and much more. Too much more. I was expecting something along the lines of "Report From Engine Company 82" or "Population 485", both great, readable books. Instead we get the (lengthy) autobiography of Edward Conlon, the history of the NYPD, the history of his relatives in the NYPD, the Serpico case, the Knapp Commission, etc etc etc. About halfway through, I started skimming sections, and after doing that for a while, realized how wasteful it was, and gave up. He details almost identical events over and over, gives way too many details about the people, the routine, the bosses, the forms they fill out, and everything else. I think he is trying to follow in the footsteps of many recent memoir and history writers, who contrast a contemporary story with historical background, a la "The Orchid Thief". But there's too much history. And too much contemporary detail. Too much everything.

I don't want to completely dismiss the book, he is a good storyteller - some of the anecdotes about his fellow officers and the "perps" made me laugh out loud. I certainly got a good feel for the urban wastelands of the Bronx in which he worked. He just needed a much better or stronger willed editor to cut a lot of the chaff, hopefully he'll have one for his next book.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book from a good cop
Review: BLUE BLOOD is an absorbing first-person account of Edward Conlon's time in the NYPD that takes us far beyond "Third Watch" and "NYPD Blue." Conlon touches on the family roots and influences that impelled him to become a policeman after graduating from Harvard -- the uncles and cousins in "the Job," and particularly his father, a career FBI agent -- and on embarrassing moments in youthful misdemeanor and on the streets of the South Bronx. He describes the banality and abusive stupidity within the NYPD's organization so clearly that one wonders why anyone would put up with it -- even before considering the dismal pay and ever-present hazards that go with the Job. Yet Conlon also has a storyteller's ear and a fine ironic humor, and the moments of byplay with his partners and with perps waiting to cycle through the System had me rolling in laughter.

BLUE BLOOD is a wonderful reprise of the NYPD's recent history. As Conlon describes his passage from probie to the detective's Gold Shield, we also see the larger forces that have forever been a part of the NYPD: the at-times stupefying bureaucracy; the pettiness and incoherence of too many bosses -- and the redemptive satisfaction of working for a good one; the insularity of police officers from the community they serve (and why this is); the always at-hand doorways to corruption. We get the Real Deal behind the French Connection, an alternate (but not unsympathetic) take on Frank Serpico, and the damage caused by the Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo cases. While, under the broader auspices of Rudy Giuliani, the NYPD cut New York City's previously horrendous rates of violent crime through tough street enforcement, similar anti-narcotics operations seem hopelessly swamped by both the volume of drugs on the street and the obtuseness of grand juries and prosecutors.

Other reviewers have complained about the size and density of BLUE BLOOD. It is dense -- I skimmed some pages myself, and the book is not a strict chronological account -- but it is neither mindless nor gratuitous. As a native New Yorker with heartstrings still in the Big City, perhaps I had a nostalgic interest in Conlon's story. In any case, I was rewarded. It's clear that, despite all, Edward Conlon likes being a cop and is good at it. He is not alone, and the good citizens of New York had best be thankful for him and his fellow officers.


Rating:
Summary: 2 Stars for effort and experience, not for writing!
Review: This cop has an awesome story but he drones on endlessly about things that have no importance to his personal story of life as a cop. This book has so much potential but needs to cut about 150 pages out of itself!! Conlon is not really good with words, he is a good cop, though, and for that he deserves 5 stars, his book does not.

Rating:
Summary: Gave up after 200 pages - this is a sure cure for insomnia
Review: I read a lot of non-fiction and was intrigued by the summary of this book on the inside cover. After reading 200 pages or so, I finally tired of waiting for it to get interesting. It just never grabbed me. This book is very wordy and very boring. This is only the 2nd book I have ever failed to finish reading - it is that bad, in my opinion.