3 out of 4 stars
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Police officers are often praised as heroes, and many young, brave children say that they want to become part of a law enforcement squad when they grow up in order to protect their city and loved ones. However, law enforcement isn't always saving the day, catching the robber, or solving a crime. Sometimes it's babysitting cows, getting covered in a wide variety of bodily fluids, and trying to keep a straight face while criminals embarrass themselves under the influence. Darren Burch has over thirty years of experience in a couple different law enforcement departments. In his book, Twisted But True, he reminisces on some of the craziest, most memorable experiences in his long career.
Twisted But True starts off with a description of the event that caused Burch to become a police officer. It's not funny or twisted in any way. In fact, it could be described as positively gory. However, without that story, the reader would not have background information to enjoy the rest of the stories. Burch's entire career started in that moment, and so it needed to be included. I'll be honest, when I picked up the book I thought it would be more one-off stories that were only picked for their laugh-out-loud moments or sheer ridiculousness, but Burch took a chronological approach. Instead of creating an anthology of short but amusing stories, he took the time to describe his career, what was going on in his personal life at the time, and how it related to the story he was about to tell. Everything tied together so nicely, and although I came to the book for the gore and tear-inducing comedy, I found that I didn't actually mind the touching and very personal notes scattered throughout the book.
Other than the chronological order and the book's layout, I also enjoyed the way the author chose his stories. Not all of them were hilarious in regards to the crime itself. Some of them were more serious, making me anxious to know if they would end in tragedy. However, every single chapter had a "twist" at the end. This was where the author could reflect on "after-the-fact" humor and end the chapter on a light note. Also, there was always a perfect balance between serious and comedic stories, making me wonder which would come next and keeping me on my toes.
I honestly have no complaints about the book's contents, except that I wish there had been more stories so I could have enjoyed the book for even longer! Unfortunately, I found quite a few grammatical issues, especially with regards to punctuation and sentences missing words or being incomplete. By the time I was halfway through the novel I was able to ignore them, more eager to read what happened next than I was bothered by the mistakes, but I do have to admit that having the book proofread would make it look more professional.
Overall, I would give Twisted But True 3 out of 4 stars. I truly wish I could give it four stars, but there were just too many mistakes. I was barely able to put this book down, thinking about the cases even while I was at work! I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys cop shows on TV or who knows a police officer in real life. However, there are quite a few gory and graphic descriptions of the crime scenes and topics like sexual assault that may trigger some readers, so I would not recommend it to readers who cannot handle graphic descriptions or who get queasy easily. It is definitely more suited for mature readers.
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Twisted But True
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I'm so glad my review was helpful! 
