This gritty novel, written by Dorothy Uhnak, a policewoman herself, chronicles thirty-three years of the O’Malleys—an Irish family of New York City cops in a time when bigotry and corruption ran rampant throughout the NYPD. It begins with the cover-up of Sergeant O’Malley’s unsavory death at the hands of a prostitute, follows his son, Brian O’Malley, on his rise through the ranks to Deputy Chief Inspector, and ends with his grandson, Patrick O’Malley’s crusade to expose dirty cops and clean up the department. The story is filled with racial slurs common for the time and sexual perversions that the O’Malleys—and men in general—seem prone to. It also gives us a glimpse into life on the crowded streets of a city where generations of immigrants tried to survive without the law and order we enjoy today. ( )