A COP'S LIFE:
TRUE STORIES FROM THE HEART BEHIND THE BADGE
By LT. Randy Sutton

"Cops put an impassive face to teh world because they have to, but they all feel things deeply and profoundly, even if it doesn't show and even if they can't express it."

Synopsis:

An unusually talented and honest writer, Randy Sutton exposes the dedication, fear, exhilaration, frustration, and despair behind the mask of a police officer. In twenty stories drawn from his highly decorated career, Sutton reveals what cops keep to themselves: the moral dilemmas, the doubts kept in check by training and duty, and the human encounters that challenge our perception of what is means to protect and serve.

Sutton revisits some of his most harrowing and poignant experiences: the first time he killed a man in the line of duty, the suicide of his partner and the blackness that almost drove him to the same fate, the drive-by-shooting of an infant and his desperate attempt to save her life, and the unexpected joy helping a child cross a busy, blighted urban street. Deeply affecting but also disturbing, A Cop's Life tells the truth about "the job" and the men and women who live and breathe it.

Reviews

"These are emotionally charged stories that will move you, even disturb you, and they go straight to the heart of what it means to be a cop."

-Tess Gerritsen, NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling Author of Body Double

Randy Sutton is a veteran Las Vegas police sergeant and he edited the highly acclaimed True Blue, a collection of real-life police stories published in 2003. His book was especially intriguing in that each and every story was personally written by a police officer. In his latest book, Sutton takes yet another gritty, intimate look at the day-to-day life of the cop on the beat. His fascinating new book goes behind the investigations and convictions to reveal the truly funny and weird things that can, and often do, happen to cops in the line of duty.

These stories are extremely powerful and provocative. Ever wonder how a cop feels, thinks, suffers, hopes, prays and copes? Some of the answers are to the found in this emotionally charged book.

The stories are varied but one that is especially compelling deals with the very real problem of cop suicide. When LT. Sutton's partner kills himself, the crushing event triggers his own feelings of helplessness and self doubts. When an old woman in a nursing home is beaten to death by her own daughter, Sutton discovers he must cope with his very real feelings of revenge toward the killer. There is also his inspirational account of how he revived and saved the life of an infant gravely wounded following a drive-by shooting.

A Cop's Life is filled with true life stories that are touching, courageous, harrowing and haunting. The crisp writing style makes for a moving book that is both insightful and, yes, at times emotionally wrenching. This is the next best thing to actually being in a patrol car with a cop on duty and better and more real than any screenplay or work of fiction.

COP'S LIFE: TRUE STORIES FROM THE HEART BEHIND THE BADGE by Randy Sutton (St. Martin's Press, $23.95)
- Reviewed by Larry Cox

"Randy Sutton has written a powerful firsthand account of the life of street cop that will give you a glimpse into a world about which the average citizen knows absolutely nothing."

- Phillip Margolin, NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling Author of Sleeping Beauty and Lost Lake.

"A Cop's Life is a compelling, sometimes wrenching, always insightful read that takes us into the soul of a working cop. Randy Sutton has lived it all, from the idealistic dream to the alcohol-haunted nightmare, and he lays it all out in prose that marks him a true craftsman. I highly recommend this book."

- John Lescroart, NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling Author of The Second Chair and The Motive.

"Randy Sutton's A Cop's Life is a remarkably honest, insightful, and moving account of its subject. Where do these men and women get their courage, how do they maintain their hope, what keeps them from wilting in the face of the worst tragedies life can dish out? Read the book and Sutton will show you. Like the cops themselves, you'll be crushed by the horror of incidents like those recounted in 'My Child' and 'The Man of the House', then uplifted - hell, redeemed - by magic moments like the one Sutton describes with affecting grace in the 'The Journey'. This is a stunningly good book by a gifted writer. Thanks, Randy, for lifting away the badge and exposing the enormous heart behind it."

- Barry Eisler, Author of Rain Storm and Hard Rain