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After the Badge

After the Badge by Danny R. Smith was first published in Mystery Readers Journal: The Journal of Mystery Readers International (Volume 37, Number 4 – Winter 2021).   Unsolved murders can haunt those who’ve been tasked with solving them. Though I retired from L.A. Sheriff’s Homicide seventeen years ago, many of my unsolved cases trouble…

Memoir Cuts

As my memoir, Nothing Left to Prove grew beyond 108,000 words, there were parts that had to be cut. For a writer, this is akin to choosing which child to give away at birth. But a general rule to writing is that if it doesn’t move the story forward, slay it.

Frederick Reynolds Interview

Frederick Reynolds is a retired Los Angeles County homicide detective and former Compton police officer. Today he joins us to discuss his illustrious and meritorious career, his love of writing, and his newly released law enforcement memoir, BLACK, WHITE, AND GRAY ALL OVER. Join me in welcoming Fred.

A Stat’s a Stat

A stat’s a stat. Every cop has heard this phrase. In my old stomping grounds, these words were generally spoken sheepishly, usually after a deputy had made an unworthy bust. For instance, a misdemeanor warrant arrest, or something the chippies could have handled, like a drunk driver. “Hey man, a stat’s a stat.” One night…

Law and Order

Policing is probably much simpler in countries where dissenters are machinegunned to death on the streets and a dictator nods his approval. Being a cop in America, on the other hand, has become an impossible job, and—as it turns out—freedom might be nothing more than a two and a half-century failed experiment. As a former street…