A family dedicated to service. The struggle to balance personal life with the demands of a career. Gripping drama of police and the people they bring to justice.
If you love Blue Bloods, you love stories like this.
Are you looking for more of these? Then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve amassed a list of books, movies, TV shows and podcasts to check out if you love police procedurals with that heavy dose of interpersonal conflict.
Of course, we won’t waste your time with stuff you’ve already heard of. We are delivering 15 great cop stories that are a little bit under the radar.
If you want to READ a cop story:
This book is quite simply a great cop story that places the main character in the position of antihero. Protagonist Denny Malone isn’t a golden boy, and his actions will have consequences for his close group of fellow cops, his family, and beyond. Written in spectacular style that’s garnered praise from readers and
critics, this is one of the best cop novels around. While it has a lot of that good cop gone bad (gone good again?) that might throw off some readers, the story absolutely pays off. It deals in controversy but without getting dragged down in making a point. Instead, it is a masterful look at an intriguing character. Read here.
The name should give you some indication that this memoir will have some appeal for fans of Blue Bloods. Like the show, it follows an NYPD cop whose family is involved with the force, but it takes a serious dive into a meditation on the nature of policing. Conlon is a thoughtful writer — and Harvard graduate —
who guides us through controversies and tender reflections. Because it is a memoir, it isn’t going to flow quite like the fictional narratives of the CBS show. But it gives you an authentic look into the same world. Read here.
Author of many great cop stories, Karin Slaughter gives us another great novel with Fallen. Here, Special Agent Faith Mitchell finds her family (and herself) at the center of a mystery. Using crime and the police procedural structure to uncover family issues and corruption makes it a great book for the list. Read here.
This is a police procedural novel and a mystery thriller, with a heavy dose on the thriller side. But what makes it such a good read for fans of Blue Bloods? It has a ton of interpersonal drama at work. Friendship and human connection drive the characters forward. Dee, our protagonist, puts together a crack team to go off
the books and investigate a crime that involves one of their own. Read here.
Not unlike Blue Bloods, this series of books is about a policewoman whose family runs deep in the NYPD. And like the show, if you enjoy the central character, you’re in for a treat, because there are many books in the series.
The books began in the 90s (and have plenty of dated stylings to show for it),
and they certainly go more for suspense than the typical police procedural. Still, it is a fun story that brings you into life as a cop in the city. Read here.
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If you want to WATCH a cop story:
This underrated gem was created by Shawn Ryan — the genius behind the legendary series The Shield. While this only ran for a single season on Fox in 2011, it serves up so much great drama and policy action, with characters that span the entire justice system. And whereas Blue Bloods makes New York a
character of its own, this show does the same with Chicago. The story revolves around corruption. And because we see things from so many points of view in the system, we really feel like we have a deep understanding of the situation. It’s a shame that this only ran for 13 episodes, but they are all can’t miss for fans of Blue Bloods. Watch here.
While this series isn’t centered on a family, it does plunge the viewer into both the police side and personal side of its protagonists. It also gives us a great spin on the cop story. Most shows in the genre are about hard-boiled veterans and their young sidekick who hasn’t had time to get cynical yet. But Rookie Blue
centers the stories of ambitious police new to the job. Across six seasons, the show explores the pressures of being a new member of the force. The struggle to find your place while also fighting crime presents a great emotional core for Rookie Blue. Watch here.
If you love police dramas, then you absolutely have to watch Southland. It originally aired on NBC for only a single season. But popular demand brought it back, and it ran for four more years on TNT. Any show with that kind of fervent fan support has something to offer. Southland gives you impeccable writing and
acting with an incredibly raw take on the LAPD. Its characters are often dealing with their personal lives, and these storylines frequently confront some of the biggest challenges a cop can face. What really sets this SoCal based show apart, however, is the near flawless execution. Watch here.
This Amazon show is an adaptation of Michael Connelly’s popular Harry Bosch book series. Even if you’ve read them, the show does a great job bringing the grit and danger to life. It has gradually become the stuff of streaming legend, as it is regularly praised as one of the first truly great TV shows to be made without
a network. With so many seasons bringing you well-honed detective stories, it’s a treasure trove. And if you can’t get enough of Titus Welliver’s performance in this iconic role, you can always check out its new spinoff Bosch: Legacy. Watch here.
This is an award winning film based on the beloved book by Dennis Lehane. It’s significantly darker than Blue Bloods, but it captures the same mixture of legacy and history that can complicate things for a homicide detective trying to do his job. The 2003 movie was directed by Clint Eastwood, and it has the hard faced
stoicism we would come to expect from him as a filmmaker. The acting is transcendent, and the twists and turns of the case are as mesmerizing as they are grim. Watch here.
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If you want to LISTEN to a cop story:
1. Cop Life
This show is hosted by a retired policeman who worked for almost 20 years on the force. The podcast revolves around interviews with real life cops, but it adds in how experiences on the job seep into every part of life. That professional / personal dimension will be familiar to fans of Blue Bloods. Ultimately, it's human
side of these episodes that keeps you coming back. While it isn’t necessarily a police procedural, it contains much the same appeal — giving you insight into these men and women.
This podcast gives you short doses of real life police stories from moments on the job. The cinematic nature of the storytelling makes it feel like fiction, but the weird encounters and bizarre twists are simply too wild to be fake. So while these are real cop stories, that doesn’t mean they don’t pack all the punch of a
fictional tale. Listen here.
This show is produced by none other than Dick Wolf and the creative team behind Law & Order. It’s a high quality fictional podcast brought to you by Endeavor Content. These storytelling shows always need a great cast, and Dark Woods gives you just that — with Corey Stoll, Monica Raymund and Reid Scott
bringing killer performances to this crime story. Listen here.
If you love police procedurals, then this podcast might be a great feed to throw into your podcatcher. It features interviews with real detectives telling stories about their experiences. Some of it veers into inside baseball, but it is a fascinating dive into the world of the detective working on the force day in and
day out. Listen here.
This one is a bit off the beaten path, but it is an absolute must-listen if you loved Blue Bloods. Every episode, podcast host Adam Richardson (a guy with serious experience as a detective) fields questions about his work. The questions come from screenwriters and authors looking to write police procedurals. What comes
up are interesting peaks into both the world of detectives and the people who turn that world into compelling fiction. This is an under-the-hood look in both, and it’s a great way to balance out all the other cop stories you're taking in. Listen here.
