Kent’s answer to “Hello, I wanted to tell you how much I love NIght Dogs and Sympathy...I've been a street cop for 15…” > Likes and Comments
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Without question ND nails the entire feeling of street policing low income communities.. From the sights, the dialogs, down to the smells.... I will echo the above in that I reread this work about once a year.. When I taught at our academy I told all incoming officers to track down a copy of this work and read it if they wanted an honest view of what the job will feel like over time.. (And told them not to be Duncan)... As an interesting side note.. Some time back I lucked up on an original copy of the book Steam.. Page number references in ND match up.. It's a personal treasure now due to it's significance.
Kent, thanks for taking the time to reply to me! I had a feeling that scene where Pharoah jumps in and saves you was based on reality....I had something similar happen once, except we weren't tussling over my gun, and nobody out of the crowd that formed around us stepped in to lend a hand....but then the cavalry arrived just as I got the guy clicked up. So, yeah...pretty much the same thing. haha...anyway, thanks again for writing the best "fictional" depiction of what it's like to be a cop in the hood. It's nice to know there are real, talented writers out there who actually know what we do, because they did it too. I respect the hell out of you sir, not just for what you've done in uniform, but what you've done on paper. Okay, no more ass-kissing for now. Hurry up and get that next Hanson novel published!
Dave -- Thanks again. Hearing this from someone like you is a big deal for me. I don't turn out a lot of books and so pretty much work in a vacuum. I'll be real glad when someone decides to publish Green Sun -- where Hanson, 38, becomes a cop in Oakland, CA, and often is not quite sure if he's crazy or not. It's difficult sometimes to sort out hallucinations from real events in East Oakland, something I'm sure you would understand -- I am very curious what people will make of this older Hanson-the-cop. I think that he'll be seen as authentic (which he is) but nothing like any cop people have ever read about, except maybe -- Dennis McMillan has told me -- the guy "Rust" in the first "True Detective." But of course he's a detective and not a street cop.
The guy who came out of the crowd, with a Chief's Special, and saved me, was a pudgy white guy no one ever saw again. One of the Black guys who the "suspect" had been insulting, jumped in too, before the guy with the Chief's Special, trying to wrestle my Model 39 from the suspect and could have been shot himself. I was grateful to him as well.
And to Michel Fisher -- Thank you for your vote, man. And for telling me about Night Dogs in the academy. I've heard a few times in the past about a couple of Lt. Colonels in the military who had their students read Sympathy to get an idea of Special Forces people. The weapons and tactics and terrain change, but not the personalities. RE: The book STEAM. Wonderful that you found a copy. I've got mine right here in my loft in Santa Fe. I took it from that dead old man's house, I confess, and wish that I'd taken the framed engineer's license (as I described it) also.
There's another story about Hanson and Duncan (it's included in the French book from 2013 also) if you can find a copy of the anthology "Murder and Obsession" edited by Otto Penzler. I think you'll enjoy it, even though I have Hanson snorting meth to get through the night after Dana's murder, one thing I didn't do as a cop, by the way.
Well, I can tell you that exchanging notes back and forth with you is a huge deal for me, so thanks again! You've made my night! Man, I'd love to trade war stories with you over a few beers some time, but I'm pretty sure yours are a lot better than mine, and probably a lot more f*cked up too....but that's why you're the guy who gets paid to tell stories and I'm not! Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to write back, it really means a lot to me.
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Michael
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Mar 03, 2016 07:14AM
Without question ND nails the entire feeling of street policing low income communities.. From the sights, the dialogs, down to the smells.... I will echo the above in that I reread this work about once a year.. When I taught at our academy I told all incoming officers to track down a copy of this work and read it if they wanted an honest view of what the job will feel like over time.. (And told them not to be Duncan)... As an interesting side note.. Some time back I lucked up on an original copy of the book Steam.. Page number references in ND match up.. It's a personal treasure now due to it's significance.
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Kent, thanks for taking the time to reply to me! I had a feeling that scene where Pharoah jumps in and saves you was based on reality....I had something similar happen once, except we weren't tussling over my gun, and nobody out of the crowd that formed around us stepped in to lend a hand....but then the cavalry arrived just as I got the guy clicked up. So, yeah...pretty much the same thing. haha...anyway, thanks again for writing the best "fictional" depiction of what it's like to be a cop in the hood. It's nice to know there are real, talented writers out there who actually know what we do, because they did it too. I respect the hell out of you sir, not just for what you've done in uniform, but what you've done on paper. Okay, no more ass-kissing for now. Hurry up and get that next Hanson novel published!
Dave -- Thanks again. Hearing this from someone like you is a big deal for me. I don't turn out a lot of books and so pretty much work in a vacuum. I'll be real glad when someone decides to publish Green Sun -- where Hanson, 38, becomes a cop in Oakland, CA, and often is not quite sure if he's crazy or not. It's difficult sometimes to sort out hallucinations from real events in East Oakland, something I'm sure you would understand -- I am very curious what people will make of this older Hanson-the-cop. I think that he'll be seen as authentic (which he is) but nothing like any cop people have ever read about, except maybe -- Dennis McMillan has told me -- the guy "Rust" in the first "True Detective." But of course he's a detective and not a street cop. The guy who came out of the crowd, with a Chief's Special, and saved me, was a pudgy white guy no one ever saw again. One of the Black guys who the "suspect" had been insulting, jumped in too, before the guy with the Chief's Special, trying to wrestle my Model 39 from the suspect and could have been shot himself. I was grateful to him as well.
And to Michel Fisher -- Thank you for your vote, man. And for telling me about Night Dogs in the academy. I've heard a few times in the past about a couple of Lt. Colonels in the military who had their students read Sympathy to get an idea of Special Forces people. The weapons and tactics and terrain change, but not the personalities. RE: The book STEAM. Wonderful that you found a copy. I've got mine right here in my loft in Santa Fe. I took it from that dead old man's house, I confess, and wish that I'd taken the framed engineer's license (as I described it) also. There's another story about Hanson and Duncan (it's included in the French book from 2013 also) if you can find a copy of the anthology "Murder and Obsession" edited by Otto Penzler. I think you'll enjoy it, even though I have Hanson snorting meth to get through the night after Dana's murder, one thing I didn't do as a cop, by the way.
Well, I can tell you that exchanging notes back and forth with you is a huge deal for me, so thanks again! You've made my night! Man, I'd love to trade war stories with you over a few beers some time, but I'm pretty sure yours are a lot better than mine, and probably a lot more f*cked up too....but that's why you're the guy who gets paid to tell stories and I'm not! Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to write back, it really means a lot to me.
