Wallace Shields

Cop House Stories Wallace Shields

Cop House Stories: Seven Allegories is a collection of fictional stories having to do with policing and social justice in our society. These stories cover several genres and perspectives and are each connected in minute ways. In the first story, "The Bear Hunt," three police officers in Alaska find themselves on a desperate hunt for a grizzly bear that may have taken a family. The second allegory, "II Ebenezer," (Second Ebenezer) is a ghost story involving a retired deputy from Georgia who finds herself facing historical realities she didn't think were possible. "The Dead Detective" explores the first fractions of a second of a detective's death and the life that flashes before him. "Cop House Stories," the title story, takes a deep dive into the lives of retired and active-duty police officers as they drink, reminisce and advise a young detective on conducting a serious investigation. In the fifth story, "Good Cop Better Cop," police officer, Dan Ferryman, wrestles with the death of his son, who was a young police officer, and his own attitudes about his profession. In the next story, "Killing Moony Jr. or Two Miles from Home," a family and two police officers explore their roles in putting Moony Jr. on death row. The final story, "The Children of Atlas," takes place ten years in a future where a self-described preacher, the Right Reverend Jones-Stray, while under siege in his church, proclaims a dire warning to the young children in his care.