Customer Reviews

DETECTIVE: The Inspirational Story of the Trailblazing Woman Cop Who Wouldn't Quit

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"Detective" belongs on the same shelf as Robin Moore's "French Connection" and Peter Maas's "Serpico." Kathy Burke's career with the NYPD was exciting, contentious, tragic--yet ultimately groundbreaking and triumphant. Burke battled crooks, killers, corrupt cops, nasty superior officers, and her own demons. That she had the guts to deal with all that--and more--is the fuel that propels this compelling book.

This is a straight forward, kick you in the balls book of what it is like to be a woman cop.
The book concludes with a revelation of the two NYC rogue cops, Eppolito and Caracappa, who sold their souls to the Mafia and thus affected so many people's lives with their corrupt actions. This officer, Kathy Burke, was adversely affected in lifelonghorrible way. There's a great deal of undercover stories detailed here, sexual harrassment, love between cops--both plutonic and sexual. Officer Burke describes so much, including receiving the medal of Honor from Mayor Koch.
But in the end, she concludes, she has her self esteem and dignity. For the reader, its those two good for nothing turncoat cops that betrayed all that was good around them.

This story kept me in the edge, I couldn't put the book down. Thankfully it wasn't 1,000 pages, I stayed up all night just to finish it. ALL NYPD cops should be mandated to read this book.

I was interested to read Kathy Burke's story because there isn't much info on the "gender integration" of police departments in the 1960's. Burke joined the NYPD in '68, a time when the NYPD was mostly male. The women on the force were mostly "police matrons" assigned to search and transport female prisoners.

Unfortunately, most of Burke's experiences (at least those detailed in the book) weren't good. She was assigned to do undercover work posing as a junkie, which put her in extreme danger. There's one scene where her (all male) colleagues forget to check on her and she's nearly killed by someone three times her size. Worst of all she loses her gun! But an older Black cop, making rounds in the area, advises her of her choices; she can tell her partners to just help her get back her gun, or she can turn them all in and be stigmatized as a troublemaker.

Burke spent most of her 23 year career out of uniform. She had an unbelievably difficult time, dealing with sexual harassment from her boss, no getting her own beat, having to work undercover all the time, and finally, she was shot by a mafioso and everyone blamed her. it was outrageous.

But thankfully, things have changed. More women join police departments every year, and stories like these are hopefully a thing of the past.

Kathy Burke, as portrayed in this book, is abrasive, opinionated, and tough as nails. If she wasn't I doubt she would have been successful in her chosen profession. She endured a lot, not only from the criminal element but her fellow officers.
The book is well written and tells a great story of triumph over adversity.

This story is amazing from the first page to the last. From Burke's rough childhood through her riveting years as a cop, it is impossible to put the book down. Hirschfeld delivers some powerful writing and allows every character to come across as they were, for better or for worse.

A female SERPICO story if there ever was one.