The Making of a Detective

The author presents a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the career of Homicide Detective Dave Carbone of Brooklyn, New York, following Carbone's evolution from rookie cop to skilled criminal investigator in one of America's deadliest neighborhoods. National ad/promo.

The career of a New York City police officer?in particular a homicide detective?has never been more graphically or expertly related than in this probing look at David Carbone by the author of The Making of a Cop. Carbone, from a large Italian-American Long Island family, joined the force in 1986 and quickly made his mark as a tough, honest and compassionate patrolman. In an unusually short time, he was promoted to detective and requested service in the 75th Precinct, in the East New York section of Brooklyn, where the body count was 100 or more every year. There Carbone distinguished himself further, although he was shocked to find how mean the mean streets were and he became so stressed his marriage almost broke up. But, like most of his colleagues, he preserved his sanity with camaraderie, gallows humor and, for a time, alcohol. Solving more than 90% of his cases, Carbone was promoted again, this time to the Brooklyn North Homicide Task Force in 1994.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

True-crime fans who remember Rachlin's Making of a Cop (1991) will line up for this book, which follows Dave Carbone from the 1986 interview by which he qualified for the NYPD Detective Bureau through two years spent investigating robberies in Brooklyn's 90th Precinct, and then a longer stint working major felonies (mainly homicides) in that borough's notorious 75th Precinct. (The tabloids call the 75th, which covers East New York, the city's deadliest precinct because it is beset by poverty, drugs, and gangs. The area averages 100 murders a year.) Rachlin spent hours with Carbone and his colleagues (1992^-93) and researched Carbone's background by reviewing police files and interviewing family members and coworkers. The title defines Rachlin's focus: he offers lots of sordid but fascinating details on cases Carbone handled, but his central concern is what the ambitious young hotshot from Nassau County learned and how the "active" young street cop changed in the process of becoming a skilled detective and, ultimately, a respected homicide specialist. Requests seem likely, given Norton's promotion plans and current controversies about "good guys" and "bad guys" within law-enforcement agencies at every level. Mary Carroll

Yet another New York City detective profile, this treatment of David Carbone's career is a cut above the others. It deals with Carbone's rise up the ladder from patrolman to robbery detail to homicide detective in Brooklyn's East New York. It vividly re-creates the feel of the streets, the personalities of colleagues and mentors, and the heady, sometimes frustrating nature of the job. Following Carbone everywhere his work led him, Rachlin (The Making of a Cop, LJ 2/1/91) traces the accumulation of experience and expertise, especially in the art of interrogation, that resulted in Carbone's being one of the most successful detectives in the department, with a clearance rate of 92 percent. But as the author makes abundantly clear, Carbone is more than just a case solver; he is a fully rounded personality, with compassion for victim and criminal alike, and has an intense need to see justice done. This will be a popular addition to true- crime and police collections.
-?Ben Harrison, East Orange P.L., N.J.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.