Eclipse of the Blue

About the Book

For the “Retired Blues Crew”, a small group of retired LAPD police officers that meet once a month to share old war stories and enjoy each other’s company, accepting retirement was a hard pill to swallow. Once considered savvy street warriors who risked life and limb protecting the good citizens of Los Angeles, they were now the forgotten hero’s whose past heroic deeds were now only remembrances visited through their colorful story telling during their once a month get-togethers. Like all things in life, they were all expendable and the guys in the “Retired Blues Crew” had been replaced by a new generation of street warriors. To the old dogs who were put out to pasture, the new centurions were taking their places with new technology and a confidence that bordered on disrespect for those who had paved the way before them. The argument that the old days of crushing crime without the benefit of all the new-fangled gadgets was more rewarding than the technology of the future was a misconception of the new breed that were now in charge of protecting the citizens of Los Angeles. For the select group of old story tellers, they needed to add one more chapter in their lives, something for the street warriors of the present to remember them by when their time finally came and they were reduced to second class citizens too old to do the job anymore. This small tight knit group of old street warriors had enough and it was time to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they weren’t too old to out-smart and out-wit the high–tech rouges who have now taken their places. Proving that computers and gadgets could never replace the wisdom and experience that the old dogs were blessed with wouldn’t be an easy task, but they were determined to challenge the new breed and beat them at their own game. They knew whatever it was they were going to do couldn’t replicate anything like the violent movies you see were people die, get hurt or cars get wrecked and buildings are blown up, after all they were cops or at least they were once. That being said, the old dogs had to pull off the perfect caper and they had to do it without claiming any of the bragging rights they so much yearned for. It would have to be for no other reason than “For Greater Glory.” In that one of their own had been diagnosed with cancer with less than six months to live, they only had a small window of opportunity to get it done. Since he was the architect behind the perfect crime referred to as “Operation Blue Eclipse,” their success would depend on how well the plan was executed with no room for error. If all went as planned and after all was said and done, the Retired Blues Crew would truly know who the best of the best was.

About the Author

D. E. Gray began his law enforcement career in 1967, spending twenty-eight years as a Los Angeles police officer, twenty-six of those years working as a motorcycle officer. After his retirement from the LAPD in 1995, Gray was hired by the Escondido Police Department in North San Diego County. He spent another fourteen years there, much of it as a uniformed street cop. After Gray’s retirement from the force in 2008, he authored his first book titled The Warrior in Me, a memoir following his forty-two-year career at both agencies. After writing his first nonfiction book, The Warrior in Me, Gray decided to write his second book titled True to the Blue. Even though his second book is a work of fiction, it is based in part on a true story that includes actual events that the author experienced or witnessed while on the job. Many of the characters portrayed in True to the Blue are patterned after real people who have either worked or crossed paths with D. E. Gray during his forty-two-year career as a seasoned street cop. After experiencing a forty-two-year high working at the two police agencies, Gray realized that he and others like him were being replaced by a new breed of cop, many of whom never had to think outside the box or, more accurately, outside the police manual. The new breed of cops had new cars, new weapons, newer equipment, newer training, and even more modern, newly built police stations. This gave Gray the idea for his third and newest book titled Eclipse of the Blue: For Greater Glory. This story follows the lives of twelve retired LA police officers who band together to commit the perfect crime, proving to themselves that they aren’t too old to outsmart and outwit the newer generation of cops that have taken their places. This story is part The Sting and part Mission Impossible with a surprise ending that will have you rooting for the twelve former cops who call themselves “The Retired Blues Crew.” D. E. Gray once again decided he had another story to tell. This time it would begin where his second book, True to the Blue, left off. He titled it Conflict in Blue: The Marissa Ortega Story. Marissa Ortega is the daughter of deceased police officer Sergio Ortega, who was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department for a bogus charge of filing a false police report, a charge he was later cleared of. Marissa, now an LAPD officer herself, has a score to settle, not just with the notorious Avenues Street Gang, who delivers terror to the citizens of Southeast LA, but with the LAPD itself. She soon finds herself and her partner on a Mexican Mafia hit list after three Avenues Street Gang members die, one of them the little brother of a Mafioso, after the conclusion of a violent police pursuit. Even though she is on a Mafia hit list, Marissa sets out to find the gang member who killed her uncle back before she was born and who is now back out on the streets with EMERO status and who is now considered a parolee at large. Things get worse when the hit on Marissa and her partner by gang members goes awry, and instead, her aunt Nina is murdered, and her partner’s wife is murdered by accident. Marissa eventually teams up with Bryce Stevens, a detective assigned to the Robbery-Homicide Division of the LAPD. Together they devise a plan to trick an Avenues Street Gang member into becoming a confidential informant, hoping he will lead them to the individual who killed her uncle and to the gang members who killed her aunt and her partner’s wife. Conflict in Blue: The Marissa Ortega Story has thrills, suspense, humor, and romance. Gray presently lives in North San Diego County with his wife, Suzanne. ***