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The Cynics

by Shelby Jones

228 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-1782; ISBN 1-4251-0025-2; US$17.60, C$20.24, EUR13.72, £9.10

Trials and tribulations of a young man just out of the U.S. Air Force joining the California Long Beach Police in the early 1970's. We follow him through the academy, completing probation and operating as a full-fledged Police Officer.

About the Book

This story encompasses the desires of a dedicated young man named Isaac J. Harland who was just released from the United States Air Force. In the early 1970's, the hippies and the flower children are in their infancy. The drug scene is just starting to blossom and crime is on the rise and becoming commonplace. Harland decides to join the Long Beach Police department. He is amazed at the many interviews, tests, and training that must be accomplished before he is placed on probation after successfully completing the academy. In the beginning of the processing there were 200 applicants. When he graduated from the Police Academy there were 16 new officers. Harland's Probationary Training Officer (PTO) is one of Long Beach's toughest cops, named Karl Kruger, who teaches our hero to do his work by the book. Harland is single. But he meets and falls in love with a tall, beautiful, and vivacious brunette who is silently, but diligently guiding Harland onto a successful career path, who, after four years takes and passes the sergeants examination. He is transferred to the Robbery and Organized Crime (ROC) Unit and is re-united with Kruger, his former PTO. A new Intelligence network is being formed between police departments across the United States by the efforts of several key politicians and through the guidance of the FBI and the CIA. The organized crime bosses, from New York and Las Vegas, causes Harland to become involved in one of the first moves in an attempt to get a foothold in the Long Beach area of the West Coast. Kruger is kidnapped by the mob and Harland is shot, and his lovely lady friend is trying to marry him.

About the Author

Shelby Jones was born in Pikeville, Kentucky in 1928. He was educated in the military ending up with a Master's Degree in Business Administration. Shelby served in World War II and Korea and resigned at Shaw AFB, South Carolina, in 1964. He immediately went to work for North American Aviation in Inglewood, California where he became a company Technical Representative on fighter aircraft. In later years Shelby worked on such other projects as the Apollo Program, Space Shuttle, Saturn Stage IV, and many satellite programs. During this time he became associated with the Long Beach Police Department for six years. Shelby has published other novels, entitled: CHASTITY, SPANGO and ANATOMY OF AN AMERICAN CORPORATION.

Excerpts