Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You: Stories - Softcover

Drummond, Laurie Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060561637 ISBN 13: 9780060561635

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2004

Synopsis

This riveting debut collection of short fiction about women cops comes from the author's real-life experience as a Baton Rouge police officer. In an entirely fresh and unique voice, these stories reveal the humanity, compassion, humour, tragedy and redemption hidden behind the "blue wall." Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You centres on the lives of five female police officers. Each woman's story-like each call in a police officer's day-varies in its unique drama, but all the tales illuminate the tenuous line between life and death, violence and control, despair and salvation. Because the stories come from the author's own experience, they open a curtain on the truth behind the job-how officers are trained to deal with the smell of death, how violence clings to a crime scene long after the crime is committed, how the police determine when to engage in or diffuse violence, why some people make it from the academy to the force and some don't, and all the friendships, romances, and dramas that happen along the way. It illuminates not only how officers feel while they are in uniform, holding their guns, but also what they feel after they go home and put those guns aside.

About this title

Review:

"Searing.eye-opening.[Laurie Lynn Drummond] is a deft storyteller." -- Contra Costa Times

"Unforgettable, beautifully written stories." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune

"A brilliant debut carries the flash of fact." -- Portland Tribune

."Elegant, graceful, unexpected and completely haunting. Drummond brings a major new talent to the crime fiction scene." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Tough, scary and riveting." -- Entertainment Weekly

"Choosing original characters over clichs and gritty detail over simplification, Drummond continually surprises with her profiles in courage." -- Publishers Weekly

"This is an exceptional body of writing." -- Library Journal (starred)

"Searing...eye-opening...[Laurie Lynn Drummond] is a deft storyteller."--Contra Costa Times

"Drummond brings a major new talent to the crime fiction scene."--New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Unforgettable, beautifully written stories."--New Orleans Times-Picayune

About the Author:

Laurie Lynn Drummond's fiction has appeared in such journals as Southern Review, Fiction, and Story, and she was a Tennessee Williams Scholar in fiction. Formerly a uniformed officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department, she grew up in northern Virginia. She now lives in Austin, Texas, with her dog, Rumi, and cat, Smilla, and is an assistant professor at St. Edward's University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0060561637
• ISBN 13: 9780060561635
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 270