Apprehensions & Convictions: Adventures of a 50-Year-Old Rookie Cop

by Mark Johnson

Overview

What makes a fifty-year-old man quit a highly successful career in charity work to take on the low-paid, dangerous job of being a police officer? When Mark Johnson left the United Way to become the oldest rookie in the Mobile, Alabama, police department, he didn’t just have to adjust to a new career—he had to adjust to an entirely new life of danger, violence, and stark moral choices. “Apprehensions and Convictions” is Johnson’s explosive memoir of his second career as a cop. Going from fund-raising with socialites to confronting armed suspects in the streets, Johnson found that poverty and crime were no longer social issues but matters of life and death. A civilized man whose first instinct is to help people in trouble, Johnson learned that some men can only be subdued with brute force and some chronic criminals refuse to be redeemed. Defying the skepticism of his wife, the derision of the younger cops who called him “Pawpaw,” and his own self-doubts, Johnson rose to become a detective and a highly decorated officer. “Apprehensions and Convictions” also tells a personal story of how Johnson overcame his own demons to find a new sense of purpose and identity in midlife. From a troubled drink- and drug-fueled youth, to dealing with both his birth and adoptive parents, to struggling to find a steady career path, Johnson’s story is of a man who found his courage and changed himself. An intense, sweeping narrative that explores the frustrations of an overprivileged youth, delves deeply into the dysfunction of the Mobile ghetto, and ends with an armed standoff between Johnson and an escaped cop-killer, “Apprehensions and Convictions” is a compelling new memoir of a remarkable life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610352741
Publisher:	Quill Driver Books
Publication date:	02/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	300
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Mark Johnson is a retired detective with the Mobile Police Department, where he was decorated several times for service and bravery. Prior to his police career, Johnson spent twenty years as a public relations director and executive director for the United Way.

Table of Contents

1) What Are You?

2) The Turd in the Punch Bowl

3) Psychic Payne

4) The Christmas Gift

5) Cops 'n' Corpses

6) Baby-Mamas and Bastards

7) My Parents Never Did That!

8) Runnin' Code

9) A Pot to Piss In

10) Love and Anger Management

11) Mudbug

12) Stranger in a Strange Land

13) Plainclothes and Provenance

14) Missing Persons

15) Deception for Detection

16) The New Squad

17) Oedipus Wrecks

18) The Chicken Comes Home to Pensacola

19) Thievin' Hoes, Prehensile Toes

20) Bad Bluffs, Slipped Cuffs

21) Solo Stakeout

22) Slocumb's Theorem

23) Fool Me Once ...

24) Bad Day on the Bayou

25) Colt's Capture and the Metro Amends

26) Folly Chases Death (around the Broken Pillar of Life)

27) Shit Gets Real

28) Face of Fury, Search for Sense

29) (Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Interviews

AUDIENCE OVERVIEW: True crime and mystery readers: The primary market for “Apprehensions and Convictions” is true crime and mystery readers, two of the best-selling book categories. “Apprehensions and Convictions” is full of exciting scenes of police action, and the climax of the book is a dramatic showdown between the author and an escaped cop killer.

Readers interested in police work: Police work is one of the few areas for adventure in modern life, and there is a vigorous market for nonfiction on police work, police procedure, and crime fighting. “Apprehensions and Convictions” presents a unique perspective on police work from a viewpoint many readers can identify with, a middle-aged man who became a police office late in life and is not a natural warrior.

Readers interested in career change and second careers: More and more Americans are changing careers at midlife, and there is widespread interest in personal stories of career change. “Apprehensions and Convictions” depicts the author’s dramatic career change from social worker to policeman and how he overcame great challenges to make the switch successful.

Self-Help/Recovery/Personal Growth readers: Another secondary market for “Apprehensions and Convictions” is self-help, recovery, and personal growth, which is one the largest publishing markets. “Apprehensions and Convictions” covers the author’s struggles with his childhood adoption, drinking, self-destructive behavior, and finding purpose in life.

Police officers: There are approximately 800,000 police officers in the United States, and like all professionals, police officers have a natural interest in books about their own field. “Apprehensions and Convictions” will appeal greatly to police, since the book takes a sympathetic and respectful look at the most disagreeable, dangerous, and challenging aspects of police work.

Editorial Reviews

"This unique and entertaining memoir by a former national charity executive, who finds himself policing dangerous inner-city streets as a 50-year-old rookie cop, is exciting, absorbing and unflinchingly honest." —Joseph Wambaugh

"F. Scott Fitzgerald claimed there were no second acts in America. He was wrong. Mark Johnson proves it. He's into his third act now, from social worker to cop, and now to writer, and in Apprehensions & Convictions he leaves little doubt that he's mastered that third incarnation. You'll be grabbed by the seat of your pants on the first page and he won't let go till the very last word." —Charles Salzberg, Shamus-nominated author of Devil in the Hole and Swann's Lake of Despair

"Part police procedural, part contemplative memoir, Johnson's Apprehensions & Convictions is all true, and a revelation. His story is by turns hair-raising, hilarious, and heartfelt. It should take its rightful place in the colorful Southern tradition of storytelling." —Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump

"Gritty, thoughtful, and harrowing. Johnson gives you unvarnished insight into a world in which few dare to tread. He's the real deal and so is this book." Sgt. Adam Plantinga, San Francisco Police Department, author of 400 Things Cops Know

"Apprehensions & Convictions is a thoroughly enjoyable and compelling read, chock-full of authenticity and soul. Mark Johnson's book is not only motivational, but, in a way, an excellent anthropological study of police culture and human behavior. Definitely essential reading." —David Swinson, author of The Second Girl

From the Publisher