Detective: The Inspirational Story of the Trailblazing Woman Cop Who Wouldn't Quit

This story is amazing from the first page to the last. From Burke's rough childhood through her riveting years as a cop, it is impossible to put the book down. Hirschfeld delivers some powerful writing and allows every character to come across as they were, for better or for worse. A female SERPICO story if there ever was one.

This story kept me in the edge, I couldn't put the book down. Thankfully it wasn't 1,000 pages, I stayed up all night just to finish it. ALL NYPD cops should be mandated to read this book.

"Detective" belongs on the same shelf as Robin Moore's "French Connection" and Peter Maas's "Serpico." Kathy Burke's career with the NYPD was exciting, contentious, tragic--yet ultimately groundbreaking and triumphant. Burke battled crooks, killers, corrupt cops, nasty superior officers, and her own demons. That she had the guts to deal with all that--and more--is the fuel that propels this compelling book.

This is a straight forward, kick you in the balls book of what it is like to be a woman cop. The book concludes with a revelation of the two NYC rogue cops, Eppolito and Caracappa, who sold their souls to the Mafia and thus affected so many people's lives with their corrupt actions. This officer, Kathy Burke, was adversely affected in lifelonghorrible way. There's a great deal of undercover stories detailed here, sexual harrassment, love between cops--both plutonic and sexual. Officer Burke describes so much, including receiving the medal of Honor from Mayor Koch. But in the end, she concludes, she has her self esteem and dignity. For the reader, its those two good for nothing turncoat cops that betrayed all that was good around them.