Seven shots : an NYPD raid on a terrorist cell and its aftermath /

Sociologist Hunt here details the NYPD cops who took down a terrorist cell in 1997. Acting on a tip, the NYPD Emergency Services team raided a Brooklyn apartment and shot two suspects, who had a fully operational suicide bomb that they planned to detonate in the subway during rush hour. The officers should have become decorated heroes, but the politics of the police hierarchy complicated their stories. Hunt, who has spent years studying police culture in the NYPD and elsewhere, unfurls the operation and its consequences from the perspectives of five participants. The raid, the petty jealousies, and the politicking of publicity-hungry superiors all the way up to the police chief and the mayor are brought vividly to life. The book ends with 9/11 and the responses of those same police officers to another terrorist plot with a much more tragic outcome. VERDICT There is a distinctly academic tone to some of the chapters, which may put off some readers, but the story stands on its own. By turns inspiring, heartbreaking, and infuriating, this will appeal to readers interested in police culture as well as both students and fans of the real-life police procedural.-Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.