GANGSTER SQUAD Undercover Cops, the Mob and the Battle for Los Angeles

The Gangster Squad was an A-team of LAPD cops, set up covertly to monitor and bust up local Mob activities in Los Angeles in the 1940s-1950s. Their dubious methods became legendary. Robert Petkoff’s young, assertive tone propels these real-life stories, and he has a knack for characterizing the blunt-talking cops as well as the streetwise gangsters. Petkoff realistically portrays Mickey Cohen, celebrity gangster and prime target of the Gangster Squad. Cohen’s showboating lifestyle and in-your-face criminal activities proved cleverly elusive to the squad, despite the cops’ strong-arm tactics and gray-area police procedures. But the book’s emphasis is on the unsung heroes of the Gangster Squad, and Petkoff deftly portrays their frustration and perseverance in pursuit of Cohen and his L.A. gangster rivals. F.T. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2012]