Retro Cop Noir
Review of the Audible Original audiobook narrated by Ed Harris (March 28, 2024).

The short story Dietrich is set in the summer of 1977, the so-called summer of The Son of Sam. That is only a sideline to the main plot which involves broken-down alcoholic homicide detective Richard Dietrich investigating first the murder of a homeless man Bullshit Bobby and then the follow-up murder of the drug dealer who was the chief suspect in the first crime.

Setting the story in the 1970s also puts it into the era of the real-life Serpico (1973) and the corrupt activities of the New York City police, as investigated by the Knapp Commission. The NYC Police corruption is also a subplot to Dietrich's investigation.

A 3.5 but bumped to 4 due to the added gravitas of having actor Ed Harris as the narrator.

Trivia and Links
Don Winslow is a popular author of crime mysteries with his most popular novel being The Power of the Dog* (2005). He has written several short stories for Audible Originals with Ed Harris as the narrator. These have been Free Billy (March 22, 2022), Deep Hole (May 26, 2022), Dietrich (March 28, 2024) and the upcoming Oregon (to be published May 23, 2024). The latter is not yet listed on Goodreads as of May 15, 2024, the link goes to Audible.

Audible Originals are exclusive audio productions for Audible. The exclusivity may be time-limited. An author may agree to a (e.g.) six-month audio exclusive before they are free to publish the story in eBook or paper formats. To date none of the Don Winslow / Ed Harris short stories have appeared in print, but possibly there will a future anthology collection. Because there is no print equivalent, the stories are a zero count in your Goodreads page count for the year if you read them.

* Not to be confused with Thomas Savage's western The Power of the Dog (1967). ( )