WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A DETECTIVE? In The Shield of Gold, private investigator and former New York Police Department homicide detective Lenny Golino informs, amuses, and sometimes saddens the reader with real-life stories from his twenty-one years with the NYPD and from his current position as head of Gold Shield Elite Investigations, LLC. Among the chapters are "Gratitude and Attitude," "From Kid to Cop," "'Street Eyes' and 'Street-wise, '" "World Trade Center Attack, September 11, 2001," "Line-ups, Show-Ups, and Screw-Ups," "The Murderous Mom," "One Who Got Away," "Cache of the Day,"...

"The Lovely Shall be Choosers" is the title of a Robert Frost poem that tells of the unhappy life of a woman born beautiful. Kidnapped Twice is a somewhat similar story, a memoir of a woman born both well-off and pretty, whose traumatic early life so shaped what came afterward that only her exceptional strength of character saved her. Now nearly bankrupt, living on a farm under challenging conditions, she nonetheless perseveres, doing what needs to be done, enjoying her cats and her wildlife, keeping afloat so far. If "the unexamined life is not worth living," then examining where one has...