From Goodreads:
Haven't come across Hanson before and will definitely go back and read the previous two.
The description of the workings of the police dept are frightening but this is much more about the man. Completely out of place but coping as well as he can with huge levels of humanity for someone so damaged.
As a reader, I found myself worrying more and more about how badly this was going to end for Hanson......

An edgy book in some ways with a thoughtful hero who is also hard and macho. The episodic structure is never a favourite of mine, but this has more depth than many books with a police setting. The writing stretches from the poetic to the self-conscious - a mixed reaction from me overall, but worth a read for sure.

Tough ex-soldier, turned cop despite English lit degree because nothing else seemed to work is central figure in this well written novel. His colleagues are suspicious of his learning and attitude: he's more tolerant than most and looking to damp down trouble rather than stir it up. Black people are possibly okay just like white people are. The assumption of racism and intolerance in the police is assumed, and seems to hold up from comments in press. Hanson, the cop, makes friends of young and old in Oakland where he is based, but this includes. Unknown to him at start, one of the biggest drug dealers of the area and people are dying because of him. His fellows wonder if Hanson is getting too close to dealer Felix, dominating region, but it's more that & teaching for criminal activity in order to arrest the guy. Hanson's performance in CA double edged when he commits a rather momentous act seeking to save Felix, so reprisals are not long coming. The love of a good women, and an encounter with a prophetic blind man turns the alliance with Felixbad, and he starts killing . A cop under duress ... very authentic although sometimes goody two shoes act sticks in my craw.