Jimmy the Wags: Street Stories of a Private Eye

by James Wagner, Patrick W. Picciarelli

After twenty-two years as a New York cop, Jimmy the Wags thought he's seen it all, but it wasn't until he retired and set up as a private eye that his real education began. Now, in his own inimitable voice, he tells a true-life story with all the action, adventure, and atmosphere of Wiseguy or Serpico -- a colorful cautionary tale that reads like fiction.His first private job was to bodyguard a gaggle of Saudi princes and right away Wags was on a roll: debt collections, a blackmail case, and a divorce surveillance that gives new meaning to the phrase "man's best friend"; movie stars, private jets, car chases, even a helicopter getaway under fire during an international child custody kidnapping.

As the stories pile up, the money gets better and the players get bigger...until he settles in as security chief of an upscale strip club and suddenly finds himself trapped between the Mafia and a psychotic enforcer for the Russian mob.

An up-close-and-personal look at a world we rarely see, from an honest-to-God character whose walk on the wild side ended up on the wrong side of the law.

Genres: Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 21, 1999

About the author

James Wagner retired from the New York Police Department in 1990 with the rank of Sergeant. He worked as a private detective for ten years.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Reviews

[Melissa Whitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An great self-portrait of a private eye, whose dry, sarcastic humor will have you turning the pages with ease.

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of “Wags” Wagner’s beginning as a PI after retiring with the rank of sergeant from the NYPD, his high times and outrageous exploits, to his involvement in strip clubs, the mob scene, and his eventual felony indictment.

It’s hard to say what’s true and what’s fanciful in this book, but it’s a fast, furious and sometimes funny read. Sure, the prose is simple and workmanlike, and it’s got its clichés, and it lacks structure at times, and his crude cop-habit of wisecracking about everyone outside his ken gets a bit old. But it’s redeemed by the scene of the FBI’s Keystone Kops failed bust, some other interesting stories of rescue, and its insight into the world of obscene, wasteful wealth that is the high-class strip club, not to mention its revelations about the mentality of the cop.