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Will Beall -- packing heat and a pen
When LA Rex came out last fall, I
read it and thought, "hey, this dude's got some style.... he's crazy, but he can put a nice sentence together." As it turns
out, I didn't know half of it, on either point. As I looked into writing a story on him, I found that not only is he really
crazy, he's got some mad style, too.
I caught him at the Festival of Books
alongside T. Jefferson Parker, Denise Hamilton and Tod Goldberg in a panel discussing the challenges about writing fiction
set in Southern California. Looking at his book jacket photo and reading his prose, I figured Beall would be a gruff, growly
guy, in love with his authenticity as a cop and a novelist.
I was very, very wrong.
READ ON
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Beall has been a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department for over eight years. He is currently assigned to the 77th Division. His assignments have included patrol and the anti-gang unit, and recently he began
working homicide.
When asked about why he started writing, Beall said, “I've always been
a compulsive scribbler, writing everything down that I see and feel. If I had more artistic talent, maybe I would sketch things.
I've been doing this forever, since long before I came onto the job. But when I made the decision to become a cop, I actually
decided that I had to put that behind me. My first week on the job, every night when I came home from work, I would just talk
to my girlfriend at the time, until two in the morning, about everything that happened all day. So, within a week of working
in 77th, I realized I needed to write about this. And I started filling up notebooks and legal pads. I don't remember exactly
when I decided to write the book, but somewhere along the line I had this idea of doing a story about this kid who was just
starting out.”
In Beall’s debut novel, L.A. Rex “As far as everyone
in the squad room knows, Ben Halloran is completely fresh to the streets of the 77th Division, a soft kid from the West Side
who's decided to become a cop and just happened to draw the hardest neighborhood in L.A. But demons from Ben's complicated
past catch up with him-and his tough, oddly principled Daryl Gates-era partner, Miguel Marquez-all too quickly. From the moment
Ben and Marquez hit the streets together, they're pulled into a web of ultra-violent corruption and retribution involving
hardcore Crip gangbangers and tagalong gangsta-rap gloryhounds, L.A.'s Mexican Mafia, sleazy celebrity defense attorneys,
and dirty cops with distinctly self-serving definitions of law enfrocement. Ben is forced to choose among father figures and
apparent destinies-trying to obey (and discover) his own moral principles as well as his desperate animal instinct simply
to stay alive.”
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