T he novel Men in Blue concerns itself with the culture of the Philadelphia Police Department in the 1970s. Among the social issues discussed are rising inner-city drug use, urban blight, and the rather intricate politics existing between and among police, the press, and City Hall. The novel's clear implications are that the police are by and large persons of integrity who do indeed serve and protect despite the efforts of criminals and, on occasion, big-city politicians. Of importance also is what can be termed "the sociology of police life" — that is, the social relationships between cops, and between the cops and the civilians they protect.

Thomas Gaughan also notes that the series is a fictional account of the Philadelphia Police Department during the mayoral tenure of Frank Rizzo, a cop who became police commissioner and later mayor, the same background given the fictional mayor...