Detective First Grade

Detective Brian McKenna #1

by Dan Mahoney

There's a secret war on the streets of the city. Only a New York cop can win it.

His claim to fame is finding guns on the bad guys, and Detective Second Grade Brian McKenna has just spotted the beard carrying a piece. What he doesn't know is that he's about to shoot his way into a war with a highly disciplined, well-armed enemy so treacherous, not even the NYPD knows they exist.

Exiled from the bright lights of Manhattan for breaking one too many rules, pressured by his girlfriend to quit the job, this is McKenna's last chance to win back his reputation and make the coveted rank of Detective First Grade. But if his moves aren't swift and right, a new breed of criminal-- who has found a leader in an exotically beautiful and ruthless woman-- will own his city.

From the savvy and experience of a cop who gave over 25 years of his life to the NYPD comes a stunning novel of undeniable authenticity and unrelenting suspense.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

440 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

I was born in Manhattan on September 21, 1947, five minutes after Stephen King was born someplace in Maine. (I don't know what that means, but I'm hoping it means something.) I grew up in Manhattan and Queens and soon found myself to be the eldest of five children. I graduated from high school at age 16, a bad thing because I was too young to get a driver's license in New York and too stupid to realize that I had to go to college to get my ticket punched. Instead, I worked as a machinist and auto mechanic for a year before enlisting in the Marine Corps at age 17. A while later I found myself in Vietnam as a machine gunner with the 9th Marines, an outfit known as The Walking Dead. It was a very bad job, to say the least.

After getting discharged in one piece in 1968, I did as my father and grandfather had done before me and joined the NYPD. During the next twenty years I managed to get promoted regularly and served in various patrol and detective commands, mostly good jobs in mostly rotten places. I also took advantage of the VA Bill and finally went to college, attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice part time and graduating in 1977 as the class valedictorian with a BA in Romance Languages.

Also part time, I got a job as Yoko Ono's security chief after John Lennon was murdered. It turned out to be interesting work since, at the time, crazies were coming out of the woodwork to annoy and harass her. Yoko liked to travel and so did I, so one of the great benefits of the job was that I got to go to some very nice places in a very nice way.

Meanwhile, my brothers and sisters were also busy. My brother Eddie decided to call himself Eddie Money and he's been singing, doing shows, and selling records ever since. My sister Peggy became a psychologist and my two other sisters, Pat and Kathy, are both nurses.

By 1989 I had twenty years with the NYPD and it was time to retire since the chiefs had never been too happy about my high-profile, off-duty job, and I had learned by tough experience that unhappy chiefs make for miserable captains. My wife at the time had also had enough of me since, between police work, school, and working for Yoko, I hadn't been home much during our marriage, so she gave me my walking papers and a heavy-duty alimony and child-support bill.

After retiring, I began working as the director of investigations for the Holmes Detective Bureau, an old and well-regarded New York PI agency. I also got a literary agent and began working on my first book, Detective First Grade. My agent sold it to St. Martin's Press a week after I finished it and it was published in May, `93. The book got good reviews and sold well, so I had myself another good part-time career. I wrote another seven books in the next twelve years, a rate of one book every year and a half. All of them feature Detective Brian McKenna or Detective Cisco Sanchez as my protagonist, and although not New York Times best-sellers, they have all received good reviews and I have sold well enough that I now regularly make the USA Today Best Seller List. Detective First Grade, Edge of the City, Hyde, Once In, Never Out, Black and White, and The Two Chinatowns, and The Protectors are all still in print.

I now have a government job working for the Department of Homeland Security, but that will have to end soon because I must get to work on my next book. My hobbies are skiing, traveling, and hanging out with my pals in pubs in town where we spend most of our time lying about our old cases. Our motto is: "The older we get, the better we were."

Reviews

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled onto this book entirely on accident. I was at my elementary schools book fair, and I recognized the NYPD badge on the cover (I had recently gotten into the hit NYPD sitcom Brooklyn 99), so I picked up this book, without even looking at the title or reading the back, and brought it home.

I try not to hand out 5 star ratings very often, but this book trusty deserves it. This book was my entrance into the world of Dan Mahoney, and more importantly the entire genre of modern day adult cop books, something which has brought so much joy and that I hope to contribute to one day.

I also assign this book 5 stars because of all the Dan Mahoney books, I think I love this one the most. What starts out as a relatively simple bust of a bad dude by hero detective Mckenna somehow (via very good policework) turns into an incredibly complex kidnapping case, the perfect introduction to the dark world of detective novels.

Other people may refer to this book and books like this as “trashy”, I know my dad would, but I will always owe something to this book for introducing me to this genre, and as many times as I reread it, it never fails to entertain me.

[Michael Mattioli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been 100 pages shorter. I swear 150 pages of this book was the main character reading a report on communist insurgency in South America. Author goes on so many unnecessary tangents and I lost track of the characters who are the terrorists because they all have almost identical names.

[Theresa Leone Davidson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Because I read Mahoney's seventh book, Justice, first, I know what a good writer he is, how well he develops his plot and keeps his reader in suspense. I went back to the beginning and read this, his very first novel, which isn't bad but makes clear that he had yet to hone his writing skill. It was a good story that lumbers along because of too much useless, dull information, so while I can not recommend the novel, I can recommend the author, and I do look forward to reading his second.

[Susan Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of this author and picked this book up on a lark. What a pleasant surprise. It is of the police proceedural ilk but kind of different. He gives you a whole lot of detail. Towards the end, it was a bit too much detail but still interesting. New York City police detective Brian McKenna loves his job and is good at it but he also loves his girlfriend who wants him out. He's got at least one more good case that he has to wrap up first. Mahoney has others already out featuring McKenna. I'm going to get another one and give it a go.

[Dave Norem · Rating 5 out of 5]

First in the series. Good, and they keep getting better.

[Kurt Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good police procedural which wrapped up rather quickly.

[Joshua Tisinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Thrilling and lots of twists and turns.

[Checkman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I first read this novel back in 96. I found it fast moving, entertaining, and involving. At the time I didn't give much thought to Detective Brian McKenna and his willingness to cross the ethical line to "get the job done". What I mean by that is a willingness to lie on the witness stand, shoot a suspect in the back, and then lie to the investigators. The protagonist even goes so far as to buy clothing that makes him more credible to a jury as he lies to them. . The overall feeling, I got was it was no big deal because our hero is doing this for us. Det. McKenna is on the side of the angels.

Fast forward fifteen (my god has it been that long?) years. Now I'm a police officer (almost twelve years in the profession at the time of writing this review) and I read it for a second time. While still engrossing and exciting I found myself uncomfortable with Mr. Mahoney's breezy attitude towards professional ethics and just ethics in general. Well actually I found myself wondering about Detective Mahoney the man. He's a retired N.Y.P.D. officer and I have to wonder about the type of law enforcement he practiced in the real world. Is this just him giving his hero the chance to do what he wished he was able to do himself? If so I can understand that for I too have experienced the frustration of being tied by the "rules". Or is the fictional exploits of his hero indicative of something else? I have to wonder.

The profession of law enforcement is a difficult one and it's very easy to cross that line for the Greater Good (or what one perceives to be the Greater Good), but once you've done it there's no going back. It simply isn't worth it. I find myself uncomfortable with a novel that takes a lighthearted approach to such a serious issue.

Now I can already hear others saying, "It's just a novel. Relax for crying out loud". Yep, you're right. It's just a novel. Good point. Just don't forget that fact as you read it. It is a very exciting novel. I just wish Mr. Mahoney had opted to portray an officer who doesn't view ethical behavior as something imposed by idiot superiors.

UPDATE 2023

In the years since this review was written there have been dramatic events take place in the profession of American Law Enforcement. I now classify this novel as a relic (it was on the verge of turning obsolete when it was published in the mid-Nineties) written by a man who retired from the field in 1989. Can't recommend it. Taking it down to one star for what it's worth.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little detective novel. It follows an NYPD detective with a penchant for spotting concealed weapons, finds a more dangerous person than normal. After the long chase and firefight, Brian McKenna finds out that this is but a small step in possibly becoming a detective First Grade. But the case must first be unravelled, and the opponent is cunning and resourceful.

Good work on his first book, even though it seems to start with unresolved issues from earlier stories. The pace is fast and quick. He describes the scenes well.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dan Mahoney is the Tom Clancy of police procedurals. His books are detailed and descriptive. His prose is clear and terse. Police in every specialty and every rank work well together for the most part, despite the bureaucracy and politics, and their equipment and technology always works. That said, I looked forward to reading his subsequent books.

[J L's Bibliomania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Run of the mill police procedural with some charming moments. While Dan Mahoney was a veteran cop when he wrote Detective First Grade, he made some rookie mistakes as an author (too much expounding on the detaila of police procedure) in what is otherwise a well conceived kidnapping story from the policeman's point of view.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this book is a little dated, but I like that. It was a good story with old style police work. There were no cell phones or DNA testing. There were a few racial slurs, but not too bad. It's a classic story of good against evil. I won't tell you who wins ;)

[Toesnorth's mom]

first novel, parts boring, too detached

[David Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gonna have to read his next book, 'Edge of the City' now...damnation ;)

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#1 in the Brian McKenna series.

Brian McKenna, NYPD, accidently uncovers Sendero Luminoso terrorists targeting wealthy Peruvians in the U.S.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read a long time ago, but remember this series as being pretty good.