The Making of a Detective

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. (Oct.)