Busted audiobook

**I received an advanced copy of this book by the publisher for review**I went into this book not quite knowing what to expect. Was it going to be a compendium of the newspaper articles that won the authors a Pulitzer or was it going to be the story behind the story? I was happy to find out that it was the latter.The book starts off with a great first chapter that introduces us to all the main players in this real life thriller and sets the tone for the rest of the book. What we get from this book is a journalist view of the pressure and danger they put themselves in to chase the truth, a truth that gets scarier the deeper they dig. What start off as an investigation into a narcotics cop inappropriate relationship with his informant and the falsifying of information for search warrants. Soon expands into an investigation of a police squad out of control robbing and sexually harassing citizens to scared to report them. This book tells the story of the lengths that the authors go to expose police corruption and the danger they put themselves in to do so. This story reads like an action thriller and leaves the reader breathless as it tears through the pages.

I very seldom read true crime, but I picked up an advance reader copy of this at the recent American Library Association meeting in Philadelphia and thought I'd give it a whirl and I'm glad I did. I was quite pleased to find the book is not at all a rehash of their newspaper articles; although they won a Pulitzer, I don't care to read the sordid saga again, pieces of which I picked up as a regular reader of the competing Philadelphia Inquirer. Nor is it a reconstruction of the alleged criminal careers of this latest bunch of goons masquerading as narcotics detectives terrorizing the citizens of Philadelphia. Instead, the book is really about good solid newspaper reporting as craft and calling in an age when the newspaper industry is on the ropes and a city where hardly anybody reads the paper anymore, at least as paying customers. So after a few pages I found myself engaged with the two reporters' characters and soon began to root for them (and the future of newspaper journalism) in their improbable quest to get real dirt on the bad cop and his comrades in crime. It then becomes a very quick one or two night read. You do not have to have any familiarity with Philadelphia to appreciate the story, but Philadelphians will doubtless savor it most since it is very much of this city, as is the ending note treating the continued apparent failure of justice in this case.

Wow! This is journalism at its absolute best. I could have done without the commentary on Barbara's life. She is one of the journalists who helped uncover the police corruption going on in Philly. I really didn't care what she ate, how she dressed, how hung up on her ex she was, or who she dated. That aside, I loved every other word in this book. Extremely well written, gripping, and hard to put down. The story itself is even harder to believe. The authors take the reader through the process of uncovering robberies (and other crimes) committed by the very police officers citizens trusted to uphold the law. The reporters were extremely fair (great self reflection!), really funny, and down to earth. I would call this a MUST READ!

More than anything, Busted is about journalism, about how the seismic shift in media over the last decade has played out at your average metropolitan daily, and for your average (and increasingly unemployed) newspaper reporter. The book is not so much a call to arms as a window into reality, a frank look at how the real work of reporting—already up against online aggregation and viral cat videos—is doubly challenged by the newspaper industry’s rapid desiccation.[FULL REVIEW]

It took me three sittings to read Busted, and each time I had to force myself to put it down. Riveting. Gripping. And not just because I'm a huge fan of Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker, but because the story itself about police corruption and misdeeds is so outrageous. You feel their anxiety as they knock on doors or wander down streets in the heart Philadelphia's worst neighborhoods. Balanced against their intense investigative work is the plight of the Daily News and their personal lives. I am very tempted to read it all over again. Outstanding!

An absorbing story about two self-described "hillbilly Jews" who write for a Philadelphia tabloid about to declare bankruptcy. The two women win a Pulitzer prize for bringing down the corrupt narcotics division of the Philadelphia police. They suspect that a single narc cop is dirty and find the whole department fairly reeks with corruption. The book includes security photos of cops about to slice the wires to a bodega's security camera system before they pillage the store for money and merchandise.It's a pretty easy, dramatic read. The two reporters are gutsy to a degree that amazed me, including one of them being slapped around by a drug dealer and informant. They are continually watchful for cops trying to follow them, discredit them, or take them out in some way. They also find victims of a notorious cop who fondles women's breasts during what the cops call drug busts but what the women describe as sheer harassment of innocent people, and the reporters eventually get the force to take this cop off the street.The book is kind of a rolling narrative featuring some unusual characters, including the police informant that turns out to be a slick addict to anything you can put up your nose, in your mouth, or through your veins. The author realizes in the end that this informant is a pure sociopath and has perpetually fooled dealers, cops, and any random sympathetic stranger he can find by spinning stories of hardship and desperate need. Even the informant's grown children have virtually disowned him.The book is fun and a rather quick read. Justice triumphs (mostly) in the end.

Owad’s Micro-Review #38It’s 2008. The U.S. newspapers that haven’t gone broke are clinging to the rim of the toilet bowl. One of them, the struggling Philadelphia Daily News, is more interested in tabloid fluff than in hard-hitting investigations. Despite this, two honest, old-school journalists risk their careers and even their lives to uncover crime and corruption in the narcotics unit of the Philadelphia police force. The story is unlikely but true—and a good illustration of why local news reporting—which has been slashed from newspaper after newspaper nationwide—is important. Without journalists like Ruderman and Laker, some pretty big trees fall in the forest—and no one’s around to hear them. March 25, 2021

Busted is an insightful look at the world of investigative reporting written with a flair that belies a perception of how you might think a book on police corruption or any kind of investigative reporting might be like: boring. It is far from it. Wendy Ruderman and Barbara Laker have written a page-turning book where the players are treated with a humanistic approach peppered with objective reporting and subjective humor and compassion for both perpetrators and victims.It's easy to see why they won a Pulitzer Prize.

This is top drawer investigative journalism. Best part about the book is that the authors, who won Pulitzers for their series of newspaper stories that led to this book, make the reader feel what they went through while reporting: the long days, seeing little of their families, and eventually the toll it took on their personal lives. They uncovered deep-rooted corruption in Philadelphia, but also paid a price for it. This book brilliantly brings out the power of journalism and also paints a realistic picture of what it takes. Brilliant.

The search for truth, for fairness, for justice, the way newspapers used to investigate and report it, and in a pst not so very long ago, this book is in your face exciting on a non-sensationalized way...probably because it is the cold hard bare truth. I commend their women, who like stubborn tenacious terriers, ferreted out the facts, no matter the danger or the risk, and presented it all for the world to read.

Great research that only a newspaper reporter could discoverBeen locked into corrupt cop books for a year or so and kindle suggested this book. Glad they did, this story is the reason we need newspapers in the US. A lot of random crimes by cops that only a reporter could weave together. A snitch and a bad cop who made a lot of money and came for selfish reasons. Worth your time to read.

Wow this book underlined the corruption in Philly PD...absolute power corrupts absolutely To think these cops still have a pension underlines an endemic problemAll cops arent bad, there are good ones but there are ones like the ones describe in this book that make it hard for folks to trust and believe.

I couldn't put this down. I grew up in a suburb of Philly.

Great investigative journalism that uncovered police corruption in Philly.

Two brave reporters take on corrupt cops in the Philly PD. Wendy Ruderman tells the story in the first person, and she's a hoot.

True CrimeThis book tells the story oof two gutsy women who took on a newspaper story about police corruption in Philadelphia. For this, they won a Pulitzer