Book description
The Calling: The Making of a Veteran Cop is an action-packed drama that
takes you through the first five years of the career of an American cop.
You will get to know Dan McCarthy, who wants to be a cop for all the
right reasons. You will ride along with McCarthy as he saves lives,
catches bad guys, and tries to survive long enough to become a
“veteran.” Get ready for a realistic tour of what policemen do all over
this country twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Strap on your
duty belt and buckle your seat belt. It's gonna be one helluva ride!
Great Cop Reading I'm a boring guy with little imagination, which is why
my writing has always been focused more on fact than fiction. (Fact is
easier to write than fiction. It's already happened, and all I have to
do is record it. That doesn't take me beyond my limited writing
capabilities.) This weakness is reflected in my reading habits as well
as my writing style. I read more biography and history than fiction. The
“willing suspension of disbelief” thing comes pretty hard for me, and
there's little made-up stuff that makes the cut for being worth my time
for entertainment. Let me share with you two novels that made the cut.
Both are written by Lt. Dan Marcou, a cop retired from a distinguished
career in municipal law enforcement in Wisconsin, where he served on a
SWAT team and earned a national reputation as a trainer of lawmen. In
fact, I first met Dan at a police training seminar in an international
venue. I thought his course was excellent (after I was fortunate enough
to get out of his demanding force-on-force role-play scenarios in one
sweat-soaked piece), and he stayed on my radar screen ever since.
Recently, in well-earned retirement, Marcou came out with a couple of
novels that gathered in all he learned and experienced in his decades as
a street cop. Dan's first novel is “The Calling: The Making of a Veteran
Cop,” and the second is “SWAT: Blue Knights in Black Armor.” Where does
it come from? Well, can we say “autobiographical novel?” Some of the
“fiction” comes from Dan's decidedly non-fiction experience, and some
from his brothers and sisters on The Job where he worked, and some from
other departments. There is one chilling vignette that reads as if it
came from real life. It should ? it did. The female officer who
experienced that particular terror was from Ohio, not Wisconsin where
Dan had to place her to keep the storyline coherent, but I expect Dan
and I were both in the same training hall when her story unfolded.
Except for the patch on the shoulder of her uniform shirt, and the fact
that Dan had to make her gun a Glock to keep the storyline consistent
with the department where it?s supposed to be taking place (she actually
used a 9mm Smith & Wesson), this segment of the novel is
blow-for-blow, shot-for-shot what actually happened. Yes, right down to
the part where the investigators thought one of her two shots had missed
her savage and deranged assailant, until the autopsy revealed that both
bullets had gone through the same entry hole, and came to rest next to
each other in the body of the would-be cop-killer. If you want perfect
grammar and spelling, go read something written by an English teacher.
If you want from-the guts, from-the-heart, you-are-there-with-us, and
here is why we do it, read Lt. Dan Marcou's two novels, The Calling and
SWAT. You can get them through Barnes & Noble or Amazon, but I would
suggest that you go straight to the source and order an autographed copy
from the man himself. Hit http://www. ltdanmarcou. com/signed. html, and
you can get it done. I hope you enjoy reading his novels as much as I
did. -Massad Ayoob Lt. Dan Marcou arrested his last felon November 1,
2006, after thirty-three years. He is a highly decorated police officer,
the 2004 SWAT Officer of the Year, and a nationally recognized police
trainer. He was told so often, “You should write a book,” that he
decided to sit down and write one. Here it is. He hopes that you find
his first effort memorable.
