A Shadow In The City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior – A Cop Questions Heroes in the Colombian Heroin Underworld

by Charles Bowden

Joey O'Shay is a cop with a genius for the drug bust. But after more than two decades undercover, he's no longer so certain who the heroes of the drug war are, or what the fight is for. Still, he never feels so alive as when he's doing a deal. So this time he sets out to test himself against the elite of the drug business, the Colombians and their fine, pure heroin. Maybe he'll finally meet his match.

Charles Bowden, author of the critically acclaimed Down by the River, follows O'Shay as he sets the deal in motion. A Shadow in the City confirms Bowden's reputation as a bold, genre-bending chronicler of the underworld.

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime, Journalism, Social Commentary, History

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2005

About the author

Charles Bowden was an American non-fiction author, journalist and essayist based in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

His journalism appeared regularly in Harper’s GQ, and other national publications. He was the author of several books of nonfiction, including Down by the River.

In more than a dozen groundbreaking books and many articles, Charles Bowden blazed a trail of fire from the deserts of the Southwest to the centers of power where abstract ideas of human nature hold sway — and to the roiling places that give such ideas the lie. He claimed as his turf "our soul history, the germinal material, vast and brooding, that is always left out of more orthodox (all of them) books about America" (Jim Harrison, on Blood Orchid ).

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bowden does his subject justice with complexity and grace, with humanity, with unflinching nerve. The man in the midst of “a system that has absolutely failed and is an absolute lie.” The man at the crossroads, with more respect for the drug dealers he’s taking down than the ones with no hunger, no ingenuity, no life on the line, no soul: the majority of the bureaucracy he works around.

“A part of him lives off the craft of it, off the ability to read other people and entice them and then betray them. His ability to destroy them. But for this to be fully satisfactory, they must meet certain conditions. They must be bright and wary and dangerous. They must be bad and even better than bad, they must exude a palpable evil. And his sense of these conditions is eroding. In his head he hears Garcia talking about his children, Gloria is leaning over to show a photograph of a grandchild, or her daughter is on the phone making conversation, or Irma is sitting there acting foolish and looking spectacular. He is flooded with impressions of the humdrum details of their lives, the utter normalcy of their needs and their loves and little fears and vanities.

The sense of being on the right side of some line is getting harder to sustain.”

You couldn’t write fiction like this. Bowden takes reality and whittles it down to complicated truth.

[Sarah Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some people criticize Bowden for mixing too much poetry in with his facts. Some for too many facts in with his poetry.

[Brendan Bernat · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read, gripping. I read it twice.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard a great interview with Charles Bowden on KUER a couple years ago, and determined that I was going to read this book some day.

The book didn't quite live up to my expectations.

In short, this is the story of an undercover DEA agent who has spent his career fighting on the front lines of the drug war. The agent, Joey O'Shay, is very good at what he does, but after 20+ years, he's realized that the war is not only unwinnable, but immoral - and he wants out.

I found Bowden's "stream of consciousness" style a little tiresome. The story jumps back and forth a lot, from childhood to different stages of adulthood, and then back. Some people like this - not me.

I wish it hadn't been so laden with foul language, but I understand Bowden's desire to be "real." I also could have done without the strip club scene. I don't think it adds anything to the story to include every nasty detail of what went on during a visit to a strip joint. Perhaps simply saying "I paid for a few lap dances and a session in the VIP room" wouldn't be consistent with Bowden's blunt "in your face" style. I dunno.

Despite my misgivings about the language, etc, I still appreciated the book's message: that the drug war (more than the drugs themselves) is destroying lives. I especially admire those in law enforcement (like Bowden and O'Shay) who have the courage to acknowledge that fact.

[Shivesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subtitle is so misleading. I was expecting the nitty-gritty procedural of an undercover officer as he infiltrates and unravels an international drug gang. Unfortunately there was wide swaths of psycho-babble and rambling, much of it unnecessarily inserted by the author. I wish more of the internal conflict was expressed in a traditional narrative manner rather than the stylized stream-of-consciousness that Bowden chooses, because it makes some aspects of this book seem like fiction. The real life story behind the undercover work here is undoubtedly intense, and I wish more of that came out at the end of the book. The beginning and end of the book are interminable and quite frankly, boring. The middle is a delicious look into how Joey O'Shay attracts and expertly destroys a major drug operation. For that alone, it gets two stars. Overall I would advise avoiding this one.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but I have to beleive the main character Joey/O'Shay/Kim Sanders whould have realized the dead end he was living long before he actually did. To bust people for the sheer thrill of it w/o placing yourself in the broader context is pretty limiting. Still, courtesy of psychiatrist and former concentration camp survivor Victor Frankl who wrote "Man's Search For Meaning" O'Shay/Sanders has an epiphany about his lifestyle that manages to free him from his bonds.

[Donna Kubiak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depressing, but real. Great writing. It is hard to believe that this is non-fiction because I can't believe O'Shay stayed in this dead-end job for so long. It is also a pro-legalization of drugs book.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just okay. It was disappointing to me after reading Down By the River (by Charles Bowden) which I loved (but which I recognize is not for everyone).

[Marsmannix · Rating 1 out of 5]

ACK. could not finish. Jock-lit

[Alfredo De villa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads strange at first, but once you get into the rhythm of Bowden's prose, the story grips you and Jay O'Shay remains knowable and a question mark at the same time.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read. Worth reading.