Biography
Joe DeCicco
Welcome to Mike Romano's World (the author's alter ego)..View video on joedecicco.com or copy and paste: https://youtu.be/hpK_aQg2ITY
Joe is a highly decorated, retired New York City Detective and internationally read novelist with a cornucopia of expertise including four years as a narcotics investigator.
His Mike Romano police series explores the moral dilemmas and personality of a righteous man who must exist in a world full of corruption. Mike Romano's courage and obstinate determination makes for an exhilarating, sometimes action-packed tale, as he tries to follow official procedure, which is frustrating and not often easy. The reader is drawn in to follow the psycho emotional depth of a modern day centurion. As one reviewer put it, "captured the grit and grime of what it means to be a cop.....
From taking us with him through his decision to become a cop, to riding along with him and his first partner Len, Mike shows us what it is like to work the streets. Through it all, his experiences with suspects, politics and even his marriage remind us that this is not an easy job. It takes a special person to truly care, to be fair and to be honest. We can only hope that there are more like Mike on the force than not.
The author originally attended college to practice electrical engineering.
After working as a lighting designer for several years, life circumstances decreed that he join the New York City Police Department in 1973. He has spent more than half his service in plainclothes; including over four years as an Organized Crime Control Bureau narcotics investigator, one year with Brooklyn Central Robbery and more than three years with the Brooklyn South Detective Division assigned to the 62nd Squad in Bensonhurst.
While serving with the NYPD Joe successfully ended the career of a burglary ring the prayed on a housing development owned by a well-known family, a member of which is now in the National Arena.
After spending twenty years on the streets of New York, Joe happily retired with over twenty awards and decorations on July 4th 1993, uniquely celebrating his own independence day and combining it with our Nation's most important Holiday.
Joe explains that his writings come from an inner need to share his experiences with others in a well-defined attempt to show that, "The Job", is not a vocation but an avocation that spans all the nuances of the human spirit. His entertaining works show sometimes complex personalities of those who choose to be the daily guardians of our society, while fulfilling the public's ongoing interest with police work.
In his novels, the series protagonist, Michael Romano, is an honest dedicated police officer, who has an inborn genetic desire to help and protect people whenever he can and an inner need to right any wrongs that he encounters.
Romano feels a strong kinship with Saint Michael, the Archangel. Sometimes, while performing his duties, inadvertently becomes involved with people who have no business being on any police force. Even though he is at times held in check by the Department and other adversarial encounters, including some personal demons and moral dilemmas, he perseveres and at times, inadvertently gets involved in incidents and investigations that are far more exciting than the basic duties of a police officer; yet never waivers in his calling.
One reviewer recently commented about the character of Mike Romano in Joe's novels; "Not only is he a good cop and a good man, but he made him likable and you want to sit down and have a beer with him. He's just a regular guy who happens to be a cop."