COLLURA: Actor with a Gun

Youthful New York City undercover detective Steve Collura led a double life for over five years. By day he was a regular actor on the TV soaps (The Doctors) and bit player in movies, by night he was a very highly paid gold-shield detective (equal to sergeant) who could pick and choose his cases. As a master of disguise, he penetrated the hippie drug scene on the Lower East Side, the heavy traffic in Harlem, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, the Mafia itself (he was an Italian TV actor, they loved him!), the Columbia student riots, Brooklyn high school dope rings, and even The Young Lords, a rampaging Puerto Rican street gang in which he rose to the top--he was the leader's right-hand man in dealing with Mayor Lindsay at City Hall. During these switches, in which he's the babyfaced Brando of the NYPD, he gets great highs of orgasmic excitement from danger--and becomes an addict of these sensations. At last, leading a drug bust twice the size of the French Connection, he gets his head nearly blown off, but survives, only to find that he killed two men while falling to the floor. A life of gut dangers, winningly told while never promising great revelations.