Description:
A serial killer is loose on the streets of Los Angeles, targeting young male hustlers. Indifferent to crimes against gays, the police department has categorized the killings as NHI--No Humans Involved. No one gives a damn, except for a gay cop whose fellow officers consider him as expendable as the young men being tortured and murdered. That some members of the LAPD could use a good spanking is no secret; allegations of abuse within and outside the department have been surfacing for years. In Outside the Badge, former LAPD officer Mitchell Grobeson (who sued the department for discrimination--and won) takes actual events to weave a fictionalized account of a cop under siege--from the streets and from his own department. Grobeson obviously knows his territory. Those with a cop fetish will enjoy his authentic voice and his attention to police procedure. And the unconventional cover image of him as a hunky bare-chested hustler will surely win him fans. But his gritty tale is not for the faint-hearted: the descriptions of the doomed hustlers--mostly runaways--are heartbreaking, and the torture scenes are cold and graphic. While this first-time author could have used a firm hand with editing (the attention to detail can get monotonous), this is clearly a story that needed to be told. --Jack Connolly
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