In past blog entries here, I’ve reviewed the action police novels of my friend and fellow police trainer Dan Marcou, all based on actual violent encounters in law enforcement history but rendered as fiction.  Dan has now taken the logical next step and gone straight non-fiction in his newest book, “Law Dogs: Great Cops in American History.”

A retired SWAT operator from a busy Wisconsin venue, Dan is a nationally respected police instructor who does his research and does it deep. Some of the vignettes in his book go back to a time when all those involved were dead before any of us now had been born to write about it, but some of them involve people Dan and I know personally, and I can tell you what those hero cops told Dan about what they experienced is pretty much what they told me.

Any of us reading this can face death at any moment. Dan’s book “Law Dogs” shares such experiences.  If you think about it, “training” should be “authentically replicated experience,” and as much as a book can do that,. “Law Dogs” delivers.

There are times in people’s lives, cop or soldier or “civilian,” when you look Death straight in the face and realize, “I’m probably going to die in a few moments, but there is something I have to do, right now” … and if you do that thing, you survive and continue to be a productive member of your society.  And, if you share with others that right thing which helped you to survive, you may even help other good people in your world to emerge unscathed, too, from such deadly danger.

I’ve been there, and so has Dan Marcou, and that’s the prism through which he shares with you the experience of the heroic men and women about whom he writes. Dan and I don’t see exactly the same lessons from everything in every one of the cases he delineates, but hell, that’s how instructors are in every discipline involving anything serious which ever might suck you into it.

The bottom line is, if you think you might ever find yourself or someone you love facing death at the hands of one or more violent criminals, the heroic men and women you’ll read about in “Law Dogs” will be role models whose example, should you follow true to them, can save the lives of you and other innocent persons you have a right to protect.

Which is why, needless to say, I consider “Law Dogs” by Dan Marcou “recommended reading.”  You should be able to find it on Amazon.com.

7 COMMENTS

  1. From the jacket photos, Wyatt Earp appears to be one subject of “Law Dogs.” I have read anecdotes by seemingly credible, reliable Arizonans from back in Earp’s day who claimed to know Earp very well, and were highly critical of him. He and Doc Holliday have been described as being involved in robbing stage coaches, for example. I definitely want to see what light Mr. Marcou will shed on Earp’s character.

  2. I’ve had the privilege to work and train with Dan over the years myself. They don’t make them any finer. I have his other books given to me and signed by Dan. I look forward to his new one. Thanks Mas . Thanks Dan

  3. Immediately downloaded Law Dogs io my iBooks n first two chapters read. I like the writing style – direct and pithy. Gonna be fun giving for Christmas gifts and now, got to get back to reading. Thanks for the tip. Good book!

  4. Hello Two-Gun Steve,

    Like you, I’ve heard many versions of Earp’s life and character. Perhaps the best was by the Dillons / Dillon Precision in their Blue Press earlier this year (I believe). It’s a well researched piece, including the period he was wanted in Az while serving as Sheriff to the north. I was totally unaware of his stint in Alaska, the racing … He was a gambler to tyencore. Fascinating individual for the times; the period’s always relevant. I need only recall my youth, a time that escapes contemporaries much younger.

    Sounds like a read Mas. That “never quit” is so relevant. I’m anxious to attend one of your “40” courses one day. It seems you are seldom near and always at a busy time.

  6. Mas, I have always enjoyed your true stories in AH. Including the aftermath parts. I have ordered this book on Amazon and should have it shortly. The cover has Hickock and Earp pictures on it as well as a couple others I do not recognize. I don’t know if Hickock and Earp would be good role models , depending on who wrote their bios, I guess. They can teach us how to win in a gun fight and what not to do such as sitting with your back to the door.
    A better book to discuss would be Bill Jordan’s “No Second Place Winner”. Now THERE is a role model. I was actually speechless the one time that I met him. Of course your books are always worth a reread.

  7. Thanks for the recommendation. Ordered just now. For a good balanced history of the Earps I recommend the last gunfight by Jeff guinn.

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