It begins in Harlem, where a drug lord is found shot dead, execution-style. No sigh of struggle, no theft, no apparent motive...it just doesn't add up. The case is a departmental hot potato that lands in the reluctant hands of Lieutenant Brian Shannon. A veteran police squad commander from the "old school", Shannon is temporarily assigned to the Chief of Detective's office with orders to proceed with extreme discretion - for the evidence strongly suggests the killer is hiding behind a badge. To make matters worse, Shannon's new partner is from Internal Affairs, a young hotshot whose irreverent, iconoclastic approach couldn't be further from hsi own.
Soon Shannon finds himself on a trail of curruption, betrayal, and greed that leads him from One Police Plaza to the office of a Brooklyn congressman to the precinct's favortie watering holes and an all-star cop on a dark crusade. It's a case of good cops, bad cops, and cops on the edge, and it could push Shannon into early retirement...or an early grave.

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I initially came across Line of Duty because it was tucked into a big lot of paperback books that I ordered off of eBay. I am not one for cop books, normally, but as I'd just finished Detective by Arthur Hailey, I thought I'd give it a shot.

And boy am I glad I did!

This is a fantastic story that shows what real police work is like. It discusses computers in ways that are not deus ex machina and shows what the internal politics are like behind the world of police work. It also shows the strain on police spouses as well as police arteries. I never realized that the world of law enforcement was so multifaceted nor so nuanced.

While I never watched it, I did live with a man who was a fan of "The Wire". I felt that if you liked that show, you might appreciate this novel, as they both seem to be on the same topic: that of police corruption.

An absolutely fantastic read!

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