The Blue Knight is the second
novel by former
LAPD detective
Joseph Wambaugh, and was written while he was still a serving
detective. It follows the last days on the beat for a veteran LAPD police officer, detailing his thoughts and actions from a
first person perspective. The
narrative is written in a coarse, sometimes
self-deprecating manner; in the first chapter, Bumper refers to himself as having "an ass two nightsticks wide".