Highly recommended for public libraries with a strong true crime collection and all academic libraries. Readers can appreciate the challenges faced by the NYPD through this well-researched time line of how the department was formed.
While it is certainly well researched with almost a thousand footnotes, this work jumps around chronologically, which may bother some readers. If you enjoyed Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, however, this will be a fun read. Scholars of early American history will find this book worthwhile.