The Book Prize Index

Blue Blood

Edward Conlon

'Superb. The most stunning memoir ever written about the cop world' Joseph Wambaugh 'Beautiful and inspiring, terrifying and heartbreaking' James Frey 'More chilling than even the most realistic cop dramas on TV' People 'A great book...with the testimonial force equal to that of Michael Herr's Dispatches' Time Blue Blood is the fast-paced, insider story of Edward Conlon's career in the New York Police Department. Conlon tells of his first days as a rookie, walking a beat in the south Bronx through his time in narcotics and his ascent to gold shield detective. Conlon is the product of generations involved in law enforcement, good cops and bad, and he paints a vivid portrait of the teeming street life of the city, in all its horror and splendour. It's all here: adrenaline-fuelled chases, toxic police politics, crackhead informants and police camaraderie. The pace is relentless, the stories hypnotic, the scope nothing less than monumental.

Memoir & AutobiographyMemoir & Autobiography · medium confidenceMemoir & Autobiography81 signalsLlm Classifier: Memoir & Autobiography -> Memoir & AutobiographyGoogle Books: Biography & Autobiography -> Memoir & AutobiographyOpen Library: Biography -> BiographyGroup BiographyLiterature & Writers

Award History

0 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current InterestMajor2004FinalistSecondary source
National Book Critics Circle Award for NonfictionMajor2004FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact. Automated checks have flagged this profile for extra review.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Edward Conlon90%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • New York Police Department55%
    • south Bronx50%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.