Soldier, Cop and Author

Police-Writers.com, a website dedicated to listing state and local police officers who have authored books and Military-Writers.com, a website dedicated to military personnel who have written books, added a prolific author who has served our country both as a soldier and police officer.

After completing military service in Viet Nam, Cherokee Paul McDonald joined the Fort Lauderdale Police Department in 1970. Rising to the rank of sergeant, he left the department in 1980, becoming a full-time writer. In addition to his fiction novels, Cherokee Paul McDonald has written two books about his life experiences. One reader comments on Paul’s In Blue Truth: Walking the Thin Blue Line-One Cop's Story of Life in the Streets, “I was about sixteen years old when I first read this book. Twelve years later, I am a cop myself, and have read and re-read this book at least twenty times since then. This book is the real deal...it doesn't glorify our job like other books have done...just the real and the raw. It gets to the bottom of what cops have to put up with every day.”

Cherokee Paul McDonald explores his military service in, Into the Green: A Reconnaissance by Fire. In 1968, he arrived in Vietnam a U.S. Army second lieutenant, assigned as an artillery forward observer. After a year service, he fell victim to malaria and was evacuated. According to the Library Journal, Into the Green: A Reconnaissance by Fire, “speaks volumes about the stress and terror of war while also reminding the reader of the touching humanity of the erstwhile civilians called upon for military service. In place of an exhaustive, day-by-day account of the war, McDonald introduces Vietnam through a series of vignettes on life in and out of the firing line. This is Vietnam as it has rarely been described, and each short narrative offers an eloquent testimonial to the conflict.”

In addition to his autobiographical accounts, Cherokee Paul McDonald has written one true crime novel, Under Contract: The True Account of a Cop Hired to Kill. This work is the tale of Al Smith, a Fort Lauderdale Police Department detective who posed as a hit man. According to Kirkus reviews, “What terrifies here is the repeated verification of the old saw about the banality of evil. In one memorable case, a sweet, petite, under-20 blond, answering an ad placed in the personals by a love-hungry bachelor, makes a request for the murder of her husband; short of cash, she wants to finance the crime on the installment plan.”

Cherokee Paul McDonald’s fictional works include Summer’s Reason, Gulf Stream and The Patch.

Police-Writers.com now hosts 390 police officers (representing 163 police departments) and their 844 books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books. Military-Writers.com lists 10 former, active or retired military personnel and their 18 books.