A Cop's Life: True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge [Mass Market Paperback]

Sgt. Randy Sutton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred 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 clichés. 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)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"With a novelist's skill, Sutton makes fresh situations that could, in lesser hands, come across as hoary clichés. 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...unflinchingly portrays the stresses that plague him when his best efforts to protect or save lives fell short."--Publishers Weekly

"Las Vegas police sergeant tells it like it is in 20 brief tales from the beat and wins wide acclaim for his honesty and his craftsmanship."--The Atlanta Journal Constitution

"Another gritty, intimate look at the day-to-day life of the cop on the beat, going behind the investigations and arrests to reveal the truly funny and weird things that can, and often do, happen to cops in the line of duty…[a] powerful and emotionally charged book…filled with real-life stories that are touching, harrowing, and haunting…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."
--King Features Syndicate

"Brilliantly evokes the tormented inner life of the average cop…with a novelist's skill, Sutton makes fresh situations that could, in lesser hands, come across as hoary clichés…poignant and well-written tales of the real world of policing."--American Police Beat

"Compelling."--Las Vegas City Life

"Randy Sutton has written a powerful firsthand account of the life of a street cop that will give you a glimpse into a world about which the average citizen knows absolutely nothing."
--Phillip M. Margolin, New York Times best-selling 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. The last chapter, The Messenger, bears comparison with O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi for all-time terrific Christmas tear-jerker. I highly recommend this book."--John Lescroart, New York Times best-selling 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 writing 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 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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312940017
• ISBN-13: 978-0312940010
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ, July 7, 2005

By 

Jacklyn Craft (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Cop's Life: True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge (Hardcover)

This book is many things - amazing, shocking, overwhelming and so much more. It was written with unflinching honesty and emotion and will give you an intimate view of the life of a police officer. We see them almost everyday of our lives and are often oblivious to the pain, emotional scars and demons they face on our behalf. This will open your eyes to their world and, hopefully, will help all who reads it appreciate them for all they do for us. They pay a very high price in their efforts to keep us safe.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I've ever read on police life, January 3, 2007

By 

Copwriter (Kennewick, Washington) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Cop's Life: True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge (Mass Market Paperback)

I bought the book on the recommendation of a friend, and didn't expect it to be much different from other cop memoirs, which are generally amusing, but formulaic. Randy's book was none of that. Having been a cop for fifteen years, I knew that Randy was writing what I felt, but he said it like no one else I've read. I finished the book on an airplane, while returning from a business trip. I was self-conscious, looking around me to see if anyone had noticed the tears running down my face. I can't remember any other book having that effect on me. If you want to know what being a cop feels like, you need to read this.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS COP CAN WRITE!, August 1, 2005

By 

Eric Cooper (Gardnerville, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Cop's Life: True Stories from the Heart Behind the Badge (Hardcover)

I served as a Las Vegas cop for thirty years, and I can tell you, Sgt. Sutton got it right. This is a gritty book that episodically depicts the author's experiences as a rookie city cop in New Jersey and as a veteran officer in Las Vegas--one of America's toughest cities to police. He doesn't just take us on patrol with him, he takes us into the dark corners of his mind and tells us how his street experiences affect him. This is not a summer book for escapist reading at the beach; it is a dark look at a good cop's life on the street. If you have ever worn a badge, you'll recognize a lot of yourself in these stories. If you are a "civilian," you will get an in-depth look at the grim reality of police work and the emotional toll it can take on the men and women behind the badge.