The cover of this book declares it to be a novel. A novel is a work of fiction, so perhaps that clears up the question of whether author Michael Rudolph really did witness his police colleague Ronnie “the reverend” Souter shoot a fleeing unarmed suspect in the back, leave him to die and then place a weapon beside him to create the misleading impression that the suspect was armed. The cover of fiction might also provide author Rudolph with the necessary dramatic license to make up a story about a ghost, and a taxidermied couple preserved in an upmarket New York neighborhood. Shades of Blue has all this and more. In part, it reads like a script for a B grade cop show, narrated by a cynical raconteur, hunched over a beer at one of those smoke-fugged after hours bars that don’t exist anymore. Ostensibly the book is a novelized account of the police career of the author; a series of selected anecdotes presented in twenty-four chapters. The narrator appears to share Rudolph’s career pathway and experiences, so the reader assumes this is a “tell-it-like-it-is” tale of police work. There is enough realism in the book for that device to work. Police really do rescue people from burning buildings, shake down owners of convenience stores for a free meal, get frustrated with bureaucracy, and put their lives on the line to protect a sometimes ungrateful public. But inShades of Blue you never quite know where the raw material of the everyday life of the beat cop becomes Rudolph’s heroic aggrandizement.

The preface sets out Rudolph’s personal philosophy, the five “Real Facts of Life”, to which he returns throughout the book, pointing out how the events described illustrate these “facts”. Highly educated, Rudolph is quick to repudiate any value his two masters degrees have in teaching him anything about the world. The “Real Facts of Life” are not taught in school, they are learned by paying attention to the world around you. Rudolph advises his readers that if they paid attention they probably know some of the “Real Facts of Life” already. Rudolph also provides an idiosyncratic definition of morals and ethics, and it is safe to say this is probably not what he was taught in his masters studies. The preface ends with an explanation of how unrestricted gun ownership makes for a safer society.

The twenty-four chapters that follow are a series of brief vignettes of police life. They are quite varied, mostly serious, but others rather light-hearted. They are told in a direct, first-person style, racy and punchy with few concessions to style. Rudolph says what he wants to say and doesn’t pause for analysis. The most affecting chapter in the book is the account of Stephen Delmont, son of a wealthy family who joined the police seeking a more meaningful career than administering the family estates. Delmont had the misfortune to be on duty at the scene of a grisly airplane crash and subsequently developed PTSD. This chapter has more than a ring of truth to it and provides an insight into the long term effects of exposure to trauma. Other chapters cover traffic violations, conflicts with police and authorities, drug crime and burglary. In the penultimate chapter Rudolph gives full vent to the righteousness of the cop as enforcer. Dirty Harry comes to mind. Rudolph wants readers to believe this incident brought the United States to the precipice of the invasion of an African country. It’s the most gratuitous chapter of the book and if the account bears any resemblance to the truth you would have to assume Rudolph and his publisher have a good team of lawyers, plenty of indemnity insurance, and some well-appointed friends.

This is a take it or leave it kind of book. If you don’t buy into Rudolph’s “Real Facts of Life” and rather fatalistic philosophy you probably won’t enjoy it. However reading a novel involves suspension of disbelief so if you can manage that you might find something of interest here. Your greatest challenge will be to suspend your disbelief of the idea that Shades of Blue is a novel rather than a collection of breathlessly recounted, heavily embroidered war stories. In the end, Rudolph asked too much of this reader.

© 2014 Anthony O’Brien

Anthony O’Brien, RN, MPhil is a lecturer in mental health nursing at The University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a clinical nurse specialist in liaison psychiatry.