After writing his first non-fiction book “The Warrior In Me”, Gray decided to write his second book titled “True To The Blue”. Even though his second book is a work of fiction, it is based in part on a true story that includes actual events that the author experienced or witnessed while on the job. Many of the characters portrayed in “True to the Blue” are patterned after real people who have either worked or crossed paths with D. E. Gray during his 42 year career as a seasoned street cop.

After experiencing a 42 year high working at the two police agencies, Gray realized that he and others like him were being replaced by a new breed of cop, many of whom never had to think outside the box or more accurately, outside the police manual.  The new breed of cops had new cars, new weapons, newer equipment, newer training and even more modern newly built police stations. This gave Gray the idea for his third and newest book titled, “Eclipse of the Blue” (For Greater Glory). This story follows the lives of twelve retired L. A. police officers who band together to commit the perfect crime, proving to themselves that they aren’t too old to out-smart and out-wit the newer generation of cops that have taken their places. This story is part “The Sting” and part “Mission Impossible” with a surprise ending that will have you rooting for the twelve former cops who call themselves, “The Retired Blues Crew.”   

According to the book description of Eclipse of the Blue: For Greater Glory, “For the “Retired Blues Crew”, a small group of retired LAPD police officers that meet once a month to share old war stories and enjoy each other’s company, accepting retirement was a hard pill to swallow. Once considered savvy street warriors who risked life and limb protecting the good citizens of Los Angeles, they were now the forgotten hero’s whose past heroic deeds were now only remembrances visited through their colorful story telling during their once a month get-togethers. Like all things in life, they were all expendable and the guys in the “Retired Blues Crew” had been replaced by a new generation of street warriors. To the old dogs who were put out to pasture, the new centurions were taking their places with new technology and a confidence that bordered on disrespect for those who had paved the way before them.

This small tight knit group of old street warriors had enough and it was time to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they weren’t too old to out-smart and out-wit the high-tech rouges who have now taken their places. Proving that computers and gadgets could never replace the wisdom and experience that the old dogs were blessed with wouldn’t be an easy task, but they were determined to challenge the new breed and beat them at their own game. They knew whatever it was they were going to do couldn’t replicate anything like the violent movies you see were people die, get hurt or cars get wrecked and buildings are blown up, after all they were cops or at least they were once. 

That being said, the old dogs had to pull off the perfect caper and they had to do it without claiming any of the bragging rights they so much yearned for. It would have to be for no other reason than “For Greater Glory.”

In that one of their own had been diagnosed with cancer with less than six months to live, they only had a small window of opportunity to get it done. Since he was the architect behind the perfect crime referred to as “Operation Blue Eclipse,” their success would depend on how well the plan was executed with no room for error.  If all went as planned and after all was said and done, the Retired Blues Crew would truly know who the best of the best was.”

According to the book description of Conflict in Blue, the Marissa Ortega Story, it “Follows the life of Marissa Ortega, the daughter of deceased police officer Sergio Ortega who was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department for a bogus charge of filing a false police report a charge he was later cleared of. Her father, who was murdered right in front of her by a reputed Hispanic gang member when she was just nine years old is now an L.A.P.D. officer herself and has a score to settle, not just with the notorious Avenues Street Gang who reins terror on the citizens of southeast L.A., but with the LAPD itself. She soon finds herself and her partner on a Mexican Mafia hit list after three Avenues Street Gang members die, one of them the little brother of a Mafioso, after the conclusion of a violent police pursuit.”

According to the book description of True to the Blue, “D. E. Gray’s first book, The Warrior in Me, was a collective memoir of his forty-two-year career in law enforcement, twenty-eight years with the Los Angeles Police Department, and fourteen years with the Escondido Police Department in the North San Diego County. Even though his new book titled True to the Blue is a work of fiction, it is based in part on a true story, along with actual events that the author experienced or witnessed while on the job. Many of the characters portrayed in this story are patterned after real people who have either worked or crossed paths with D. E. Gray during his forty-two-year career as a street cop.

This story begins in early 1999 and follows the hardships of Sergio Ortega, a six-year veteran of the LAPD who is assigned to the elite CRASH1 gang unit of the Operations Central Bureau. It follows Ortega’s struggle to be the best at what he does, getting the bad guys off the streets while staying true to his badge and the blue uniform that he wears and that represents cops in every city.

With the infamous LAPD Rampart scandal about to break wide open and Chief Bernard Parks’ hard-line approach with his officer accountability policy, Ortega eventually discovers that being a good cop is more than he had bargained for. When he is faced with protecting the identity of an “ELA Dukes” gang member who has turned confidential informant for an LAPD Hollenbeck Division detective, he finds himself in trouble with the department. He soon realizes that the Hollenbeck detective would turn his back on him only to protect his own career. Ortega’s 1 Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, usually known by the acronym CRASH, was an elite but controversial special operations unit of the Los Angeles Police Department.

His hard work and dedication to the job would destroy his marriage and alienate his friends and partners who would abandon him in his time of need. Ortega would have to dig deep into his past to come to grips with his downward spiraling life to try to salvage it from the disaster it had come to be.”

According to the book description of The Warrior in Me it “offers readers a look back at the author’s distinguished career with both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Escondido Police Department. It contains several accounts of true events that happened in various locations of California from murder to robbery and chases. Along the way, Gray learned that there were cops, and then there were real cops – the ones who worked the streets everyday. Gray further surmised that law enforcement organizations are comprised of two groups of people – street warriors (who patrolled the mean streets) and administrators (who worked their way up the ladder through promotions). Ultimately, this book emphasizes in detail the police culture like no other book could.”