A Cop's Tale transports readers back in time to some of New York City’s most violent and corrupt years, the 1960s through the early 1980s. The guide for this descent into the Big Apple’s most hellish days is Jim O’Neil, a highly decorated detective. His career spanned the NYPD’s transformation from a corrupt, inefficient force floundering in a city full of murder and mayhem to one of the cleanest, most efficient police departments in existence. O’Neil delivers a rare look into the bare-bones brand of law enforcement that has passed into history.

This book describes the thrill of putting Harlem drug lord Leroy “Nicky” Barnes out of business; O’Neil’s key role in helping the DEA end Frank Lucas’s grip on the Harlem drug trade; his cracking open the Black Liberation Army case; and his experience as the first detective on the scene of the “Dog Day Afternoon” bank robbery.

A gritty, heart-stopping account of a bygone era, A Cop's Tale depicts the willingness of one of New York’s finest to get as down and dirty as the criminals he faced while passionately protecting the citizens of the city he loved.