True to the Blue

D. E. Gray’s first book “The Warrior In Me” was a collective memoir of his 42 year career in Law enforcement, 28 years with the Los Angeles Police Department and 14 years with the Escondido Police Department in the North San Diego County. Even though author, D. E. Gray ́s new book titled “True to the Blue” is a work of fiction, it is based in part on a true story along with actual events that the author experienced or witnessed while on the job. Many of the characters in this story are patterned after real people who have worked or crossed paths with D. E. Gray during his 42 year career as a street cop. This story begins in early 1999 and follows the hardships of Sergio Ortega; a six-year veteran of the L.A.P.D. who is assigned to the elite C.R.A.S.H. gang unit of the Operations Central Bureau. It follows Ortega’s struggle to be the best at what he does, getting the bad guys off the streets, while staying true to his badge and the blue uniform that he wears and that represents cops in every city. With the infamous L.A.P.D. Rampart scandal about to break open and Chief Bernard Parks ́ hard-line approach with his officer accountability policy, Ortega eventually discovers that being a good cop is more than he had bargained for. When he is faced with protecting the identity of an “ELA Dukes” gang member who has turned confidential informant for an LAPD Hollenbeck division detective, he finds himself in trouble with the department. His hard work and dedication to the job would destroy his marriage and alienate his friends and partners who would abandon him in his time of need. Ortega would have to dig deep into his past to come to grips with his downward spiraling life to try to salvage it from the disaster it had come to be. Given one more chance to prove himself at the San Pasqual Police Department, Ortega would find himself investigating several murders that were made to look like drug overdoses. When his neighbors discover a large drug cache hidden in some Mexican Talavera pots they purchased, Ortega is tasked with finding the drug runner who lost the drugs to incompetence. When the neighbors are later found murdered, Ortega becomes obsessed with finding the killer who he believes may have also had a hand in the string of overdose murders as well as Sergio’s own ex-wife’s murder. Staying “True To The Blue” uniform leads Sergio on a journey that culminates into an unpredictable and shocking outcome.