A raw, gritty memoir—part true-life cop thriller, part unputdownable history of a storied time and place—that will grip you by the throat until the explosive end
Alphabet City in 1988 burned with heroin, radicalism, and anti-police sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop in the most high-voltage neighborhood in Manhattan, Detective Sergeant Mike Codella earned the nickname “Rambo” from the local dealers, as well as a $50,000 bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets. He knew that the further east you got from the relative safety of 5th Avenue, Washington Square Park and NYU, the deeper you entered the sea of human misery, greed, addiction, violence and all the things that come with an illegal retail drug trade run wild. With his partner, Gio, Codella made it his personal mission to put away Davie Blue Eyes—a stone cold murderer and the head of Alphabet City's heroin supply chain. Despite the hell they endured—all the beatings and gunshots, the footchases and close calls—Codella and Gio always saw Alphabet City the same way: worth saving. 
Alphaville, Codella’s riveting, no-holds-barred memoir, resurrects the vicious streets that Davie Blue Eyes owned, and tells the story of how Codella bagged the so-called Forty Thieves that surrounded Davie, slowly working his way to the head of the snake one scale at a time. With the blistering narrative spirit of The French Connection, the insights of a seasoned insider, and a relentless voice that reads like the city’s own, Alphaville is at once the story of a dedicated New York cop, and of New York City itself.

Alphaville: 1988, Crime, Punishment, and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side

Biographies & Memoirs

BENNETT, BRUCE

Codella, Michael

Professionals & Academics

Thomas Dunne Books

A raw, gritty memoir – part true-life cop thriller, part unputdownable history of a storied time and place – that will grip you by the throat until the explosive end
"Codella describes [Alphabet City] so vividly, with such hardboiled language that you feel like you're in the squad car with him." --New York Post 
"[A] taut true-crime tale... genuinely exciting." --Kirkus
"A blistering cop's-eye view of the Drug War during the heady years of the late-1980s…. You will feel as though you are pounding the pavement and dodging bullets. Alphaville is the real deal." – T.J. English, New York Times bestselling author of The Savage City
Alphabet City in 1988 burned with heroin, radicalism, and anti-police sentiment. Working as a plainclothes narcotics cop, Mike Codella earned the nickname "Rambo" and a bounty on his head. The son of a cop who grew up in a mob neighborhood in Brooklyn, Codella understood the unwritten laws of the shadowy businesses that ruled the streets. He knew that the further east you got from the relative safety of 5th Avenue, the deeper you entered the sea of human misery, greed, addiction, violence and all the things that come with an illegal retail drug trade run wild. With his partner, Gio, Codella made it his personal mission to put away Davie Blue Eyes―the head of Alphabet City's heroin supply chain. Despite the hell they endured―all the beatings and gunshots, the footchases and close calls―Codella and Gio always saw Alphabet City the same way: worth saving. 
With the blistering narrative spirit of The French Connection, the insights of a seasoned insider, and a relentless voice that reads like the city's own, Alphaville is at once the story of a dedicated New York cop, and of New York City itself.

Alphaville: New York 1988: Welcome to Heroin City

St. Martin's: Griffin

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