Securing The City by Christopher Dickey

In the three decades [Dickey's] been reporting on guerrilla wars and terrorist conspiracies, the fanatical hatred of countless groups has focused on New York City like a compass needle quivering toward magnetic north. from page 3

Securing the City: Inside America's Best Counterterror Force--The NYPD by Christopher Dickey is the last of my nonfiction reads and I am now (happily) back to fiction. Securing the City was a riveting and interesting read. Dickey has easily accessible writing and another positive for me was the short chapters (chapter length probably plays too large a role in my enjoyment of a book... the answer lies in my reading process, but that is another post for another time).

The book chronicles the sheer luck and later the sheer diligence of the work that the police put in to prevent many terrorist plots from successfully detonating on American soil. This page turner uses true accounts of countless terrorist attacks both on American soil, specifically New York City and environs, and foreign soil to show the vulnerability of a city and a nation. Some of the most interesting attacks are ones that occurred a hundred years ago that were perpetrated by anarchists and others that were/are not associated with the Islamist based terrorists that one always thinks of today when one hears the word terrorist. The book portrays the growing pains, shifts, and transformations the NYPD endured to become the organization it is today--one at the top of its game in crime fighting and counterterror operations.

Securing the City is a must read for any true crime account lover, police procedural fan, or mystery genre reader. I recommend you check it out the next time you visit the Matthews Public Library; it is located at 363.325 upstairs in adult nonfiction.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

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