And Then Came the Blues:

My Story of Survival on Both Sides of the Badge 

By Katrina Brownlee

Akashic Books, $28.95 HC

At 22 years old, Katrina Brownlee, five months pregnant, was shot 10 times by her ex-fiancé, a New York City correctional officer who had terrorized her for years.

Despite desperate 911 calls in the months leading up to the shooting, police officers failed to protect her, instead shielding her abuser. This betrayal by the system inspired Brownlee to become the kind of law enforcement officer she never found when she needed one most. She served in the New York Police Department for 20 years, rising to first grade detective.

Brownlee shares her harrowing, ultimately inspiring story in “And Then Came the Blues: My Story of Survival on Both Sides of the Badge.” The memoir traces her extraordinary journey from her troubled childhood marked by transgenerational trauma and nearly losing her life to becoming one of New York City’s most decorated detectives, serving in undercover operations and the elite mayoral protection detail.

More than a personal story, Brownlee’s memoir exposes the deep failures in how domestic violence cases are handled and offers a powerful call for reform. After surviving unimaginable abuse and institutional neglect, she became a beacon of hope, dedicating her life to mentoring at-risk girls and fighting for victims’ rights through her nonprofit, Young Ladies of Our Future, and advocacy platform Can’t Be Silenced.

“At any step along the way, I might have given up and decided, the world owes me, not the other way around,” writes Brownlee in the gripping memoir. “But I knew if I could protect even a few people from the pain I had suffered, I would be a better person for it.”

Her courageous voice has been spotlighted in “The New York Times” and CBS’s “48 Hours.” Now she reveals the full scope of her journey in her own words, raw and unvarnished.

Comments