Famed American author James Patterson and American hero Matt Eversmann, who was portrayed as the protagonist in the film Black Hawk Down, have collaborated on a new book that details the personal experiences of police officers and the ways in which they risk their lives every day to protect American communities.
"Walk the Blue Line," which was released last Monday, is already a #1 bestseller on Amazon, and is accompanied by a Fox Nation-exclusive special of the same name that's available to stream today.
"Our mission is that, if you served, if you've been a police person, you'll read this and say, Eversmann and Patterson got it right," Patterson told Fox News Digital in an interview. "A lot of people don't understand what policing is all about and I think it's really important right now."
This is the third book that Patterson and Eversmann have worked on together to tell the real-life stories of public service members. Their first collaboration, "Walk in My Combat Boots," told the stories of military service members; the second, "ER Nurses" recounted the experiences of frontline healthcare workers.
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"People read it [the book] in one gulp and in particular, the police are saying finally somebody told our story, gave our side, and they got it right," Patterson said. "It's not pro-cop and it's not anti-cop. It's cop. This is just the real deal."
Eversmann said people should read the book before they make any judgment about what they think they know about cops to really understand the situations they face every day on the job.
"This job is hard as hell," Eversmann, a retired U.S. Army sergeant himself, told Fox News Digital. "I mean, it really is. That's no hyperbole. This is a tough job. Every day when you show up to work, you put on your body armor … so you don't get shot in the bread basket."
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"You go out and you know that there is a 50/50 chance that I'm literally going to get in a physical altercation," he added. "It doesn't matter whether you're big or small, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, male, female, you're going to get in the mix."
Eversmann believes the profession has become vilified for several reasons, which he admitted he doesn't understand because when people are in trouble, the first thing anyone does is call 911 to get help from the police.
"That's a job that none of us would want to get up and say, 'Hey, I can't wait to go out and get into it,' but we have these men and women that do, and I think they deserve a fair shake - and this book gives it to them," he added.
Patterson made clear that the book doesn't editorialize experiences, but simply tells the stories of patrol officers, K9 handlers, sheriffs and detectives and what it is like to wear the uniform and carry that weight of responsibility in a dynamic and engaging way.
"There is more action in this book than there would be in four or five Alex Cross novels," Patterson said. "A lot of stuff happens in this book, so it's very, very readable."
Patterson cited the media's spin on police as being one of the reasons he wanted to pen this book, telling Fox News Digital that he believes the mainstream media gets "pretty much everything" wrong when it comes to policing.
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"One of the things that we heard again and again and again from the people we talked to is that nobody hates bad cops more than good cops," Patterson said. "There are so many good cops and that doesn't mean that they don't have bad days and it doesn't mean that they're not flawed."
"People keep looking for these very simplistic answers, and it's not simple," he added "People make mistakes, cops make mistakes, cops have bad days and there are some bad cops and we shouldn't kid ourselves about that."
"We do need to evolve more to the point where people are, within reason, beginning to thank cops for their service, to recognize how difficult that job is, how impossible it is," Patterson said. "Cops want to make it better. That doesn't excuse what happened in Memphis, nobody's trying to excuse stuff like that.
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"Almost every cop would go, 'That shouldn't happen, that just shouldn't happen,'" he concluded.
Subscribers can now stream ‘Walk the Blue Line’ on Fox Nation.
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