Welcome to the streets of Los Angeles.

Think about what you expect from most cop stories. High speed chases, ghastly crime scenes, tense showdowns, gunfights. Cop stuff, movie stuff. Now, spin around three times and take a shot or two of Sambuca. This is where it gets real.

Police work is about storytelling.

Often shocking and frequently surreal, this collection of essays chronicles a descent into the absurd, where the rules of logic and reason disappear, and the only way to make sense of it all is to embrace how little of that sense it actually makes. From the madness of working the streets of Skid Row to the debauchery on the streets of Bangkok, these experiences represent a different kind of storytelling. They aren’t just police related. These are the stories about people and how they experience the world, and the surprising ways in which they move us.

Now ask yourself, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever associated with a song that got stuck in your head? Did it have anything to do with sex? The good kind, or the weird kind? What about crackhead conversations? Or how about night terrors, or haunted houses?

Sure, those gunfights and chases may be true, but they aren’t true true. They’re not what it’s about. If anything, it’s about people, and people are wild. You’ve never heard stories like these before. Pray you never have to experience them. They’re not for the squeamish or easily offended, so pour yourself another shot, and consider yourself warned.