The Badge Between Us
The Badge Between Us
Duty, Marriage, and Family
Beginning with a description of what it means to be a police officer and the nature of the job, The Badge Between Us quickly progresses to the inside workings of a major case. Through the lens of a gang investigation and the subsequent quintuple murder of a young family, the book delves into the workaday world of a homicide investigator. It is a fast-paced narrative through rough neighborhoods as Terry and his Safe Streets Task Force FBI partner combat the raging violence and murderous tendencies of dangerous gang members. The book provides an insider perspective on how long-term undercover criminal investigations develop and the physical and psychological toll upon police officers. It is a front seat ride-along into the unpredictable ethos of the streets and the mercurial politics of the job while his responsibilities as a spouse and parent remain trapped between the two. Compounding the narrative is Terry’s promise to his wife, Joan, to leave policing after graduating law school five years into his career and reneging on that promise by postponing it to the point that when he had 20 years on the job, he still could not let go of the allure of the job and the streets. The book peels back the curtain of what life is like for a police family and those who make a career out of ensuring the safety of others.
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“Terry Dwyer has written a moving memoir of his two-plus decades as a police officer. It moves artfully between public and private, from an unfiltered, detailed, and evocative presentation of the successful investigation and prosecution of a violent criminal gang, to a depiction of the stresses upon his family caused by the frustration and miseries of a career in law enforcement.”
- J. Michael Lennon, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Nominee and author of Norman Mailer: A Double Life
"This book explores the personal challenges, sacrifices, and dedication of the author in his duties as a police officer. Highly recommended for all readers."
- Joseph D. Pistone, retired FBI agent and New York Times bestselling author of Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia
"Terry Dwyer’s The Badge Between Us is a riveting account from a man of strong character and ideals who becomes a New York State Trooper to enforce the law and do good in the world. A standup cop and a devoted family man, he rises to the rank of investigator and begins working organized crime investigations, murders, and gang cases, to name a few. But along the way, he is stymied time and again by corruption and complicity from within his own ranks all the way up the chain of command to Albany. Dwyer's struggles to navigate his sense of duty, his ethics, morality, and loyalty to the badge he’s sworn to uphold as his nerves, his sense of self and his marriage strain to the brink of breaking, makes for propulsive reading."
- Beverly Donofrio, memoirist and bestselling author of Riding in Cars with Boys
"Terrence P. Dwyer’s memoir, The Badge Between Us, is a raw, heartfelt, and simmeringly honest journey into the life and mind of a criminal investigator in a dark moment of American history. At times bleak and foreboding, at other times shimmering with hope, the story is driven by Dwyer’s uncanny willingness to dissect his own psychology, for good or bad. The stakes here are incredibly high: not only the lives of New York citizens and the criminals who prey on them, but also the soul of a man who stands between them, and the soul of the family that—across decades—persists in drawing him back from the dark, urban abyss of his life’s work. These emotional dynamics make for an incredibly compelling read, and signal the arrival of a talented writer, one truly capable of narrating the lives that exist at the edges of our nation’s shadows."
- Jordan Dotson, author of The Ballad of Falling Rock
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