Most police novels are written from research. This one was written from experience.
Retired NYPD First Grade Detective Robert A. DeMarco draws on his own career to take readers inside a side of policing few outsiders ever see.
Detective Tony DeLuca believes in the badge, the job, and the idea that good police work still matters. His career takes him from the streets of New York into increasingly difficult assignments, each one testing his judgment, his instincts, and his understanding of the department he serves.
Then he enters Internal Affairs.
There, Tony discovers a very different kind of police work. The suspects wear a badge. The investigators are often viewed with suspicion. And every allegation carries consequences long before anyone knows where the truth will lead.
When a corruption investigation begins pointing toward a group of officers, Tony becomes deeply involved in a case that conventional methods have failed to break. The officers under scrutiny understand police tactics, witnesses are reluctant to cooperate, and finding a way forward will require patience, creativity, and risk.
What follows will test more than Tony's ability as an investigator.
It will force him to confront what happens when doing the job means examining the institution he has spent his life believing in, and what that decision can cost long after an investigation ends.
Inspired by actual events, The Line That Held blends crime fiction with firsthand law-enforcement experience to create an unusually authentic look at police work, Internal Affairs, and the people behind a corruption investigation.
For readers who want realistic police procedurals, true-crime-inspired fiction, and a story that feels lived rather than researched.