For the first time in forty years, former New York Times editor Michael Cannell unearths the full story behind two ruthless New York cops who acted as double agents for the Mafia. No episode in NYPD history surpasses the depravities of Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, two decorated detectives who covertly acted as mafia informants and paid assassins in the Scorsese world of 1980s Brooklyn. For more than ten years, Eppolito and Caracappa moonlighted as the mob’s early warning alert system, leaking names of mobsters secretly cooperating with the government and crippling investigations by sharing details of surveillance, phone taps and impending arrests. The Lucchese boss called the two detectives his crystal ball: Whatever detectives knew, the mafia soon learned. Most grievously, Eppolito and Caracappa earned bonuses by staging eight mob hits, pulling the trigger themselves at least once. Incredibly, when evidence of their wrongdoing arose in 1994, FBI officials failed to muster an indictment. The allegations lay dormant for a decade and were only revisited due to relentless follow up by Tommy Dades, a cop determined to break the cold case before his retirement. Eppolito and Caracappa were finally tried and then sentenced to life in prison in 2009, nearly thirty years after their crimes took place. Cannell’s Blood and the Badge is based on entirely new research and never-before-released interviews with mobsters themselves, including Sammy “the Bull” Gravano. Eppolito and Caracappa’s story is more relevant than ever as police conduct comes under ever-increasing scrutiny.

Willie Manfred is released from prison, and he's on a mission that includes revenge on the ranger who sent him there. But Jack Harden isn't an ordinary ranger. He doesn't play by the rules all of the time. Going on a killing spree, threatening his family, or trying to kill him won't stop him from doing his job: finding the person responsible. The likeliest suspect is Willie Manfred. When a fourteen-year-old girl goes missing somewhere in a million square miles of Texas, Jack has to find her before Willie finishes her off. That is, if it's Willie at all and not the licentious host of the national talent show who's having tryouts in Dallas. Will Willie get Jack before he can solve the mystery and save the girl? Or has Jack's luck run out? As Elsie and Jack try to salvage what's left of their relationship, an ever-widening canvas of death unfurls around them. Can they stop it? Or will their blood be on the cards?

Willie Manfred, the most maniacal man in Texas, is out of prison, and he wants payback on the man who sent him there. So, he lures Jack into his trap through a series of senseless murders, and now a young girl is missing. But, is it Willie?