Customer Reviews

Honor for Sale

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Honor for Sale is the amazing story of how narcotics confiscated by the NYPD got back into the streets of NY. The book has fascinating diaglogue that tells the tale of how this theft was pulled off. The story gives you a true sense of what the people who did it were like. I enjoyed this book and recommend it highly. There are parts of the book which you laugh hard and it is very difficult to put this book down. Enjoy!

"A Remarkable Book"

"At what well may have been the darkest hour of the New York Police Department, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) of the NYPD's Narcotics Division was the true inner circle of corruption. Robbery and bribery and big-time dope dealing were the norm. Murder was not unknown. As a detective assigned to the SIU, Gerald Kelly witnessed the horror of this totally perverse "law enforcement" organization. From his own experience, he tells the dizzying story of how the SIU finally was brought under control.

Based on years of careful research, Kelly's book traces the cynical maneuvering of naïve political figures like Mayor John Lindsay and Governor Nelson Rockefeller as a giant wave of public concern pushed the city to confront the corruption that came close to swamping the nation's largest police force. Kelly's understanding of the complex dynamics of this long difficult process is astonishing. And his book rings true despite the fact that the story requires a fictional accounting of some of its most dramatic moments such as the Gracie Mansion meeting when Mayor Lindsay fires his hapless police commissioner in a desperate and doomed effort to save his own faltering political career. A remarkable book."

DAVID BURNHAM - Former New York Times reporter whose April 25, 1970 article broke the news of the NYPD's most shocking corruption scandal.

"Kelly writes with admirable energy, and his potent dialogue crackles with street authenticity."

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY -

I have long been interested in this particular chapter of NYPD history. Robert Daley helped lay out Robert Leucci's side with Prince of the City and Sonny Grosso quickly rebutted him with Point Blank. 20 years later this book tells it with a different, somewhat shocking slant. All told I favor Grosso's version on most events, but this book is still entertaining although, I probably should have waited for the paperback.

Gerald Kelly's Honor for Sale, as the title implies, is an excellent, readable indictment of the SIU narcotics investigation unit of the NYCPD as it was in the 1970's. The book reads more like a novel, than a true crime caper, but it has a good eye for dialogue and human motivations that ring true. The author's opening note that 'most' characters are authentic, and admission that 'some' scenes and dialogue are 'invented' together with the limited bibiliography (given the breadth of these cases)does beg the question-which characters, scenes and dialogue are invented? Notwithstanding these limitations, the book is an excellent read, and does explain how corruption prospered within the SIU unit - I wish the author had found a few unblemished heros, as the book casts doubt at to whether there was a single honest narcotics detective. I'm sure there were some - he himself says he was a narcotic detective, but never tells us much about himself. I would recommend the book notwithstnding these limitations.

I saw the MSNBC Special on the featuring the author of Honor for Sale, Gerald Kelly. It was an excellent feature detailing how an elite force of narcotics detectives were corrupted.

I enjoyed the book, Honor for Sale. I thought it was an excellent read written from someone who knew the detectives, and characters involved in the stealing for the French Connection Narcotics from the NYPD Evidence Facility.

There were descriptions in this book that could only be given by someone on the inside. The account of the crime rings true.

The best part about the book is that it is told as a story from the eyes of the detectives in the bureau. I truly felt that I knew who these men were and why they did it.

Excellent, Excellent Book.

this was an amazing book that brought me back to the days when I also was a New York City detective. The public will get a back seat tour of real life fiction from this excellent charismatic story telling. There were points in the book where I was actually laughing out loud having recalled some of my own inanity on the job. It was an unfortunate time for the NYPD, though it is story that certainly needs to be told, and told it is, with wonderful clarity and awsome real life drama and dialouge. The need and importance of this book is that we as humans can learn from our own mistakes, and this book can only tell us what not to do in the future. It is laced with remembrances of sheer terror that can only occur from performing that job for such a long time. It was an awsome read and can only enlighten an unsuspecting public what it's like to ride in an "rmp" for any period of time. If your a fan of real life fiction and police drama. Or if you simply want an engaging New York Story, this is the one for you. I, having lived it and can attest to the truth, can without hesitation question or reason recommend this 'tell all'! Hopefully the writer has some more dark secrets he'd like to share, about his time on the NYPD!

Just a phenomenal book... loaded with juicy tidbits... although, a sad commentary from back then. John Lindsay doesn't come off too good, but, as a whole the book is great. Told from a "I was there perspective." Good, good buy!

This is a fascinating account of a truly mystifying unsolved crime committed by members of the NYPD Special Investigating Unit. The best part is the controversial nature of this account. Whether you believe this version or not the book is so interesting to read and the depiction of the characters seems so precise it is truly worth your time. The fact that this version disputes many previously held notions about the steeling of the French Connection Narcotics from the NYPD Evidence room makes this a must read. Some of my friends dispute this account vigorously but this crime has never been solved so who can say for sure.

This is a great story that needed to be told. The characters were characters in this book. The balance between bravado, conflict, greed, and power of the principles in this book were well defined. You get caught up in the action but also enjoy the author's commentary and sense of humor as he details events from their eyes. There is a disclaimer at the beginning of the book in which some have critiqued the authenticity of the source. I myself do not know about the status of the books claim to authenticity however I enjoyed the story, characters, and events portrayed in this book so much that it mattered little to me. But from reading this novel I can say with some certainty that the person who wrote this book definitely had knowledge of what happened and at minimum knew the true-life persons very well. This book was very easy to read and in fact I finished very quickly because the story was so interesting. I recommend this book very highly.

I stayed up all night reading this book. The further I got into the book the tougher it became to stop reading. The plot was full of unexpected twists with humor intermixed with serious situations. At first you needed to get to know the characters. They were described very well but there were many to get to know. Once you understood who everyone was the book came together. I became riveted to this story of scandal and corruption that was synonymous with the Special Investigation Unit of the NYPD. The stealing of the French Connection narcotics was a conspiracy of police and Mafia as told in this book. And what a good story this was!