Alphaville

A raw, gritty memoir – part true-life cop thriller, part unputdownable history of a storied time and place – that will grip you by the throat until the explosive end

“Codella describes [Alphabet City] so vividly, with such hardboiled language that you feel like you’re in the squad car with him.” —New York Post

“[A] taut true-crime tale… genuinely exciting.” —Kirkus

“A blistering cop’s-eye view of the Drug War during the heady years of the late-1980s…. You will feel as though you are pounding the pavement and dodging bullets. Alphaville is the real deal.” – T.J. English, New York Times bestselling author of The Savage City

Alphabet City in 1988 burned with heroin, radicalism, and anti-police sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop, Mike Codella earned the nickname “Rambo” and a bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets. He knew that the further east you got from the relative safety of 5th Avenue, the deeper you entered the sea of human misery, greed, addiction, violence and all the things that come with an illegal retail drug trade run wild. With his partner, Gio, Codella made it his personal mission to put away Davie Blue Eyes—the head of Alphabet City’s heroin supply chain. Despite the hell they endured—all the beatings and gunshots, the footchases and close calls—Codella and Gio always saw Alphabet City the same way: worth saving.

With the blistering narrative spirit of The French Connection, the insights of a seasoned insider, and a relentless voice that reads like the city’s own, Alphaville is at once the story of a dedicated New York cop, and of New York City itself.

Author Biography

MICHAEL CODELLA was a New York City cop for twenty years. He worked and supervised in the DEA, Secret Service Task Force, Special Frauds Squad, Missing Person’s Squad, Operation 8, and several other outstanding and prestigious units throughout the City. Mike retired from the NYPD in 2003 as a Detective Sergeant. He now divides his time between TV and film work, being a professional fight trainer, and running his Renzo Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy with his family.
BRUCE BENNETT is a writer whose work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Sun; a guitar player who has performed and recorded with the A-Bones, Hasil Adkins, Action Swingers, Yo La Tengo, and Andre Williams; and the writer and director of two award-winning short films, both aired on the Independent Film Channel. A Manhattan native and twenty year resident of the Lower East Side — including the period covered in ALPHAVILLE—Bennett now lives and works in Brooklyn.