Vice Cop: My Twenty Year Battle With New York's Dark Side - Hardcover

By his own account, aided here by Mallowe ( The Meat Man ), McCarthy's career with the New York City Police Department was filled with high drama from start (1966) to finish (1987). He joined the force at the height of the riots in Harlem when the need for officers was so pressing that he was assigned to the streets immediately, without attending the traditional police academy course. The next crisis he weathered followed the revelations of "honest cop" Frank Serpico, whose "disclosures about police corruption ended his own police career prematurely and nearly cost him his life." Serpico's allegations prompted an investigation by the Knapp Commission, which found wrongdoing in the ranks of the police so widespread that it became almost impossible to tell which cops were trustworthy and which were not--a problem that was to plague McCarthy in his everyday work for years. He then spent a decade and a half with the vice squad, part of the time undercover, which culminated in the kidnapping of a subordinate by mobsters, an incident that the book reconstructs with almost unbearable suspense. McCarthy concluded his police career in what he evidently regarded as a less stressful job--as commanding officer of the NYPD bomb squad.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

McCarthy's career in the New York City Police Department spanned 20 years, culminating in his appointments as Commanding Officer of the Public Morals (Vice) Division and, later, of the Bomb Squad. This memoir concentrates on his years undercover as a sergeant on the vice squad and is full of details on how undercover investigations are conducted as well as how police work together. McCarthy, who comes across as a tough guy crusading to clean up corruption and vice, meets and describes a truly amazing array of characters (police and criminals). His depictions of criminal activities are very explicit--particularly in the area of prostitution. The narrative is disjointed at times, but the subject matter will be absorbing for general readers. In another recent book, What Cops Know ( LJ 12/90), Connie Fletcher's interviews with Chicago police officers offer similar insight into the psychological and technical aspects of police work. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/90.
- Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY at Albany Libs.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.