Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
Book Review by Heath Hansen
Ever wonder what it’s like to be a street cop? The politics? The bureaucracy? The intensity? Or what it feels like to face a crazed maniac? The adrenaline high? The danger? The uncertainty? Fractured Streets has it all.
I was recently perusing noir crime books on Amazon and came across an interesting thriller written by an author named West Havoc. The online synopsis promised an intense ride for the reader, so I decided to order a copy of Fractured Streets. When the novel arrived, I couldn’t put it down. The cover has a picture of a California city skyline at dusk, a seeming prelude to the many harrowing adventures of Officer Vic Harden while he patrols the metropolis at night. Fractured Streets kept me on my toes, guessing what Harden’s next step, or misstep, might bring.
The novel is based in San Damian, a fictional California city, mirroring the rampant crime, homelessness, and typical rat-race, of any of its counterparts in a major California city. Harden’s department, like many departments in the United States, is plagued by a lack of officers, an anti-police lean by members of the general public, and a district attorney afraid to prosecute criminals. Furthermore, as the story reveals, the San Damian Police Department is experiencing corruption at some of the highest levels within the organization. As the story progresses, readers understand that Harden is essentially a good guy, in a bad place, just trying to do the right thing.
Our reviewer settles in for a read.
Through Harden, the author expertly chronicles what it’s like to be an actual street cop. From transient issues, to suicides, to riots, to murder, readers are given a gritty rendition of the full gamut of what officers experience on the job every single day. Harden, like many of today’s police officers, is a veteran of the Global War on Terrorism. His experiences as an airborne infantryman on deployment, coupled with his time pushing a police cruiser, have given him a realistic, but jaded, perception of the world around him. Nonetheless, he wears the uniform, and serves the public, day in and day out, trying to make sense of the chaos.
Like a typical evening in the life of a cop, the novel begins with Harden donning his uniform and heading into line-up.
After receiving their beat assignments, Harden and his squad-mates listen to an unusual briefing by the homicide detectives. They find out later, the homicide unit is searching not simply for a murderer, but a serial killer. Harden is now cognizant of a violent, murderous predator operating in his area of South Morg, and is tasked with tackling this issue on top of his regular duties.
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As Harden actively tries to find the serial killer, he dutifully covers calls on his beat as well. During one such call, he gets into a fight with a methamphetamine addict, and ends up unwittingly violating a department use of force policy. This leads to an Internal Affairs (IA) investigation, and another headache for Harden. The author describes the IA detective situation:
After raking me over the coals, Gerlind would seek praise from his superiors like a Labrador Retriever fetching a Waterfowl. He was going to do what he was going to do, but I was going to make him earn it. This put me at peace. I relished in the fact that there was no hope to preserve my clean record. It made me ruthless and fearless. I committed myself to exposing Gerlind for the coward that he was.
His frustration with the department grows more intense as he attempts to navigate his way through the bureaucratic nonsense, while still trying to serve the public and fight crime.
In one of my favorite scenes, Harden meets his partner Woodland, at a dive bar, to discuss some of the internal politics surrounding their situation. The author describes the setting masterfully:
The exterior walls were the classic exposed brick, painted black and chipped from age. A red and white neon sign that said “Vamp’s” hung above the roof…The inside was dimly lit by replica gas lights with red bulbs perched at each booth. It felt like a place where secrets are supposed to be told.
Havoc is able to set the mood for the conversation very well in his description. Readers can immediately imagine themselves in the dive-bar, quietly listening to the conversation between the two police officers.
My only critique of the work is that it is relatively short. While the story is complete, I found myself wishing there had been more chapters to unfold in the life of Vic Harden. The author chooses to keep this novel succinct and to the point; hopefully it is the first story in what will be a long series of novels to come.
The story progresses, and Harden makes his way through a maze of uncertainty, fighting both crime and a bureaucracy out to get him. Eventually he encounters the serial killer, in a heart-pounding scene that unfolds in a highly detailed shocker, leaving the reader with an adrenaline rush.
By the end of the book, Harden is still a hard-charging patrol officer, the streets are a bit safer, and some of the corruption within the department is exposed. The story concludes with a “dark” happy ending; Harden may have survived the Fractured Streets of San Damian, but the path to this survival was through an almost impossible journey of fighting, shooting, killing, and corruption that leaves the reader relieved for Harden, and aware that things in the streets are not always black and white.
Heath Hansen spent five years as an airborne infantryman with the 82nd Airborne Division. He deployed to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2006 and Iraq from 2007 to 2008. He writes frequently for Soldier of Fortune.
