Book excerpt: Ride along with Lt. John Tasker as he supervises a crew of young officers during a life-threatening heat wave in June 1980. Watch in wonder as a seldom-seen side of old-school street work is exposed while he handles one situation after another. Sometimes the cases are heartbreaking, often poignant, and occasionally hilarious. Feel his inner emotions as he interacts with the complex and difficult world as seen through his patrol car windshield. Discover the roller-coaster inner struggles of a good man trying to do the right thing in a world where that is not always one of the choices. Lieutenant Tasker relishes it all, and you go right along with him so you can see, hear, and sometimes even imagine the smells of the people and places that fill his days and nights. As though the challenge of thriving in one of the most demanding careers on the planet isn’t enough, he secretly agonizes over a homicide investigation as it unfolds, which has the serious potential to ensnare him.