Death as a Living by Doyle Burke

Available December 21, 2021

This book isn't a cozy, it's actually non-fiction, but since it focuses on death investigations I thought readers might be interested. As a cozy mystery reader and writer, I found this book very enlightening on several levels.

These days the police get a lot of bad press. It's true, there are some dirty cops out there who do terrible things and I would never say their actions shouldn't be exposed. But the truth is, the vast majority of law enforcement professionals are fine, upstanding people who put their lives on the line to protect and serve their communities. They don't do it for fame or fortune or status, because more often than not when they interact with people it's on the worst day of that person's life and they don't get much positive feedback for the work they do, even under the best of circumstances. Police work is a calling, much like the clergy. It's not glamorous and you won't get rich doing it, but the intrinsic rewards call people to the profession and the people who do it are all in.

The press and social media thrive on negativity. Making people feel good doesn't cause them to rise up, it doesn't translate into public outcry, which doesn't result in advertising dollars or viral headlines. No, the media gets paid when you're angry; they want you to be furious so they'll only tell you the bad things. They'll dig until they find something really awful and then they'll build a context around it that may or may not be accurate and sell it to you as though it was the every day state of life in our country. We allow the media to paint the entire profession with broad strokes and we allow our culture to perpetuate hatred for perfectly decent people just because of the uniform they wear.

Burke's book opens the lid on the police. What are they really like? What struggles do they face trying to protect the people in their jurisdictions? Why do they do what they do, the way they do it? How does their work effect them? Their families? Most of us, having never served in this capacity, know little or nothing about police work or the police life (though a lot of people think they do because they watch cable television). Burke educates us on what really happens behind the scenes. I found the whole thing fascinating and enlightening and also very sad. I did internet searches on many of the cases Burke discusses in the book because I was interested to know more about the victims and the investigations. I encourage anyone to look up Jorge Del Rio, a kind young officer who reached out to comfort Burke during a difficult case despite the fact that they barely knew one another. Fast forward almost 30 years to Del Rio being gunned down trying to serve a warrant, leaving his wife a widow and his five daughters without a father. A lifetime of public service cut tragically short, a wonderful man gone, a blind widow who lost her best friend, five young women who will never again get to hear their dad say "I love you." But the media didn't care about Jorge. Think about that for a minute.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I think it's bigger than simply an interesting account of one man's career. Burke talks about community policing, forming relationships with the leaders of the community to build understanding and trust so the police and the citizens can work together to ensure the best possible outcomes for everyone. This book is a broader form of that same concept. He's communicating with the readers to help build the same type of understanding so maybe the next time they interact with a police officer they'll think back to this book and know the police officer they're interacting with is not some monster with a badge, but a person just like you and I. A person who deals with the worst humanity can dish out and has to go home and try to forget the horrors they've seen, a person who puts their life on the line every day, both physically and emotionally, to protect their community.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.