William Marling (Case Western University) said of Joseph
Wambaugh, he “is a former policeman who transformed the sub-genre of the police novel into serious literature of a hard-boiled
nature. His first four books and his work on the Police Story television series in the 1970s set standards of realism, dialogue,
and character development for subsequent writers or turned them in new directions.
The son of a policeman, Wambaugh was born in East Pittsburgh,
joined the Marines at seventeen, and married at eighteen. After an Associate degree from Chafee College, he joined the police
and rose through the ranks from patrolman to detective sergeant (1960-74). While working as a policeman, he attended Cal State
University Los Angeles, receiving his B.A. and M.A. From his Catholic faith to his young marriage and Marine service, Wambaugh
epitomized the police force. But then he began to "moonlight," as he said, writing about that life and his colleagues.
When he published The New Centurions in 1971 the acclaim was instant and unanimous. "Let us dispel forever the notion
that Mr. Wambaugh is only a former cop who happens to write books," wrote Evan Hunter in the New York Times Book Review:
"This would be tantamount to saying that Jack London was first and foremost a sailor. Mr. Wambaugh is, in fact, a writer
of genuine power, style, wit and originality who has chosen to write about police in particular as a means of expressing his
views on society in general.”
In 1954, Joseph Wambaugh entered the United States
Marine Corps. He was discharged in 1957 and began college, earning his BA in 1960. He joined the Los Angeles
Police Department, rising to the rank of Detective Sergeant. He left the LAPD in 1971 to pursue his writing
career full-time. In 1968, he earned an MA. Joseph Wambaugh is the author of Hollywood Station;
Hollywood Crows; Delta Star; The New Centurions; The Blooding; Echoes in the Darkness; Finnegan's Week; The Golden
Orange; Lines and Shadows; The Black Marble; The Blue Knight; The Choirboys; The Secrets of Harry Bright; The Onion Field;
Fire Lover; Fugitive Nights; The Glitter Dome; and, Floaters.
One reader of The Onion Field
said, “I lived in Los Angeles in 1963 and I've seen the movie several times, but not until I picked up a used copy
of the book out of the Good Will this last week did I read the written account. As usual, the book is ten times better than
the movie. It's gripping and very hard to put down. The sadness of what happens to the surviving police detective is so
frustrating and seems, today, so unnecessary. Of course, we forget that seeking help from therapists and even talking about
your innermost fears(called "burdening others" with your problems), etc. were not the vogue in 1963. If they had
been, this story might have ended differently. I was particularly interested in the author's references to local landmarks
which made the story come alive for me. What makes it eerier is that the area of the onion field where the murder took place
is not all that far from the city but even so, it's strictly away from city life, kind of up in the hills, pitch dark
at night and isolated with nothing but a big lonely highway running through surrounding fields growing a variety of crops.
Oddly enough, regarding the two sleazoid criminals, at times they seemed more intelligent than some of the defense attorneys.
Fantastic story! I predict it will stay with you for days after reading it.”
Publisher’s Weekly said of Hollywood
Station, “Wambaugh's outstanding new novel, his first in a decade, is not only a return to form but
a return to his LAPD roots. Times have sure changed since the 1970s, the setting for some of Wambaugh's best earlier works
such as The New Centurions and The Onion Field. Grossly understaffed, the officers of Hollywood Station find themselves writing
bogus field interviews with nonexistent white suspects in minority neighborhoods to avoid allegations of racial profiling.
Crystal meth rules the streets, and crackheads and glass freaks dressed in costume (Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Darth Vader, Elmo)
work the tourist strip, bumming money for their next fix. With an impressive array of police characters, from surfer dude
partners "Flotsam" and "Jetsam" to aspiring actor "Hollywood" Nate Weiss and single mother Budgie
Polk, Wambaugh creates a realistic microcosm of the modern-day LAPD. Today's crop of crime writers, including Michael
Connelly and George Pelecanos, obviously owe a debt to Wambaugh. The master proves that he can still deliver.”
One reader of Hollywood Station
said, “Under the watchful eye of the Sergeant they call the Oracle, the members of Hollywood Station go forth each day
to protect and serve the diverse population of Hollywood, never knowing what the day will bring.
One shift, they might have to referee a dispute between
Spider-Man and Batman. On another, they might stumble upon a robbery scene where a bound and gagged victim is nervously squeezing
a live grenade between his legs in an effort to keep it from going off. On yet another shift, one of their number might be
severely beaten at the end of an otherwise quiet sting operation. Despite the uncertainty they face, they do it day after
day, year in and year out.
Rich in colorful incident, at times laugh out loud
funny, at times achingly poignant, Hollywood Station marks the triumphant return of Joseph Wambaugh to the police procedural.
Portraying a police department under fire from within and without, Wambaugh gives the reader insights into the people who
do this often thankless job; his cops are tired, and grouchy, and quick tempered, but above all, they're human, dealing
with high pressure situations on a daily basis, always subject to surprise. Eschewing political correctness in his search
for the truth, Wambaugh emphasizes that humanity in all its glory and tragedy, producing one of the most memorable books of
2006, a worthy successor to previous classics like The Blue Knight and The Choirboys. As the estimable Ray Bradbury says in
his blurb, "Bravo.”
Publisher’s Weekly said of Fire Lover,
“Returning to print after a six-year hiatus, former LAPD detective sergeant and bestselling author Wambaugh (The Onion
Field, etc.) focuses on firefighters rather than his usual police beat. It's a surprising switch, but Wambaugh's regular
readers will not be disappointed, since sparks fly throughout this potent probe into the life of arson investigator John Leonard
Orr. Fascinated by fires in his L.A. childhood, Orr learned fire fighting in the air force. An eccentric loner with few friends
and a womanizer with a string of failed marriages, he was rejected by the LAPD and LAFD. In 1974 he joined the Glendale Fire
Department, where his gun-toting, crime-crusading capers earned him the label "cop wanna-be" from both police and
firemen. Rising in the ranks, Orr became well-known as an arson sleuth. He had a sixth sense for tracking pyros, but there
was one serial arsonist, responsible for the deaths of four, who remained elusive. In 1990, during the worst fire in Glendale's
history, some noted that Orr's behavior "seemed very peculiar." That same year, Orr was appointed fire captain
and began writing a "fact-based novel" about a serial arsonist who turns out to be a firefighter and in it Orr revealed
certain facts about the unsolved arson case that he couldn't have known through his work. Was Orr the serial arsonist?
Wambaugh recreates these events for a suspenseful, adrenaline-rush account of what one profiler dubbed "probably the
most prolific American arsonist" of the 20th century.”
One reader of The Glitter Dome
said, “The Glitter Dome is a good way to start the Wambaugh adventure. More humor than The Choir Boys and less preaching
than the latter. Laughs abound on nearly every page ending the story on a somber note. A delightful read which is episodic,
easy to put down when the occasion requires it but easy to pick up later when the schedule allows. Wambaugh's character
development and dialogue combine as his strong suit. Nicknames and physical characteristics are a very close second. Collectively,
the characters dance before your eyes and tell their stories in a most delightful fashion.”
One reader of Floaters said,
“This is my second experience reading Wambaugh, the first being "The Golden Orange". Wambaugh's strength
lies in his sharp, cynical, sarcastic and blackly humerous use of language. I laughed out loud at his witty and dark brand
of humor. His command of the English language and cynical look at Americana seen through the eyes of cops and robbers is worth
the price of admission alone. This novel works mostly through his style, and the plot is greatly enhanced through his wordplay.
I learned more about Americas Cup racing than I ever wanted to know, yet was never bored throughout "Floaters".
A lesser writer might not have been able to make such a plot work, since the finale is laced with coincedence and irony, yet
Wambaugh's style more than makes up for any potentially lame plot twists. This is not to say that the plot is poor or
predictable; it's neither. But the fact is that few writers would be able to pull off such a tale.”
Publisher’s Weekly said of Fugitive
Nights, “Wambaugh's latest, following The Golden Orange , promises more entertainment than it delivers.
The plot centers around PI Breda spok Burrows, a former LAPD detective, and three cops: hard-drinking Lynn Cutter, waiting
for approval of his disability pension and retirement; Jack Graves, whose life and career were ruined when he killed a 12-year-old
boy by mistake; and Nelson Hareem, an ambitious and aggressively manic young officer hoping for reassignment from the county
outskirts to Palm Springs. Burrows hires Cutter to determine why the wealthy elderly husband of her client has apparently
made a donation to a local sperm bank. Meanwhile, as Graves works to redeem himself, Hareem tracks a mysterious fugitive--perhaps
an international terrorist-- who beat up a cop at a desert airport, stole a truck and disappeared. An unexpected resolution
to Burrows's case precedes a wild chase during a celebrity golf tournament and a bloody climax at a post-tournament party.
While poking fun at the Palm Springs lifestyle, Wambaugh offers plenty of his trademark cop humor, including a funny but essentially
irrelevant prologue skewering President Bush and Sonny Bono. But in this case, the whole equals less than the sum of its parts.”
One reader of The Blue Knight
said, “Mr. Wambaugh's outstanding book still holds up after three decades. World-weary after twenty years on the
police force, Bumper Morgan reflects on the changing nature of police work and the potential for a new phase of his life when
he retires at the age of 50. He is exposed on a daily basis to the extremes of the human condition; from seamy survivalist
of poverty and drug-addiction to courageous, law-abiding citizens just trying to get by. Overweight Bumper wallows in a variety
of "freebies", especially food, that appreciative merchants heap upon him for helping them out throughout his career.
A realistic and compassionate depiction of a street cop. Absolutely worth reading.”
Kirkus reviews said of The Secrets of Harry
Bright, Sidney Blackpool, another divorced, alcoholic Wambaugh homicide detective with the L.A.P.D. whose son
Tommy died in a surfing accident a year ago, is plucked from his familiar environs and set down in windy, sand-blasted Mineral
Springs, the scratchy underbelly of chi-chi Palm Springs, and promised a very cushy retirement job if he can uncover the likely
murderer of multimillionaire Victor Watson's playboy son Jack, who was found burned to a crisp in the desert, with a bullet
in his skull. After 17 months of no-leads, the Palm Springs P.D. draws only yawns on the case. But Victor Watson wants to
know who his son's killer is. And he is counting on the bond of rage between fathers who have lost sons to push Blackpool
to success. As ever in Wambaugh, every plot-turn occurs through a ton of sheer padding, albeit very engaging padding, a kind
of relentlessly black-minded absurdism that replaces mere realism and logic. Blackpool's gaily roistering sidekick Otto
Stringer thinks his buddy is an an hedonist, someone incurably unfun-loving. Their investigation involves them with the nearby
Mineral Springs P.D., an outhouse outfit of nine dumb heads who are Keystone Kop screw-ups of the first water, among them
overweight Chief Paco Pedroza, who is a sexist pig with jelly tits and a mustard yellow aloha shirt. These cartoon police
clinkers were all hired into the Mineral Springs P.D. by Sergeant Harry Bright, the Chief's confidant and keeper of the
secrets arising from their force's sublime ineptitude. But Blackpool and Stringer gradually discover certain irregularities
about Harry Bright that cast a dark cloud over the man - who in any event has been in a coma for several months following
a stroke and a heart attack. Oddly enough, Harry Bright has also lost a son - and is a drunk. "Well, you know how it
is in police work. There's a guy or two at every station. Whiskey face, whiskey voice, whiskey eyes, but they always show
up to work on time. Always have a shoeshine and a pressed uniform. Always do a job. That was Sergeant Bright." And therein
also lies the essence of the secret of Harry Bright, the grieving alcoholic father who is now the pressed shell of duty and
yet - having lost a son - is capable of forgiving and taking in the lost sons of the varied California police departments.
Despite his black humor and sometimes out-loud funny moments, Wambaugh winds up with a fairly serious novel, with rich Christian
symbolism in Harry Bright. The force of alcohol addiction and the essence of self deception in the disease are brought home
strongly.”
One reader of Echoes in the Darkness
said, “as a graduate of Upper Merion--with Jay Smith's signature on my diploma and Bill Bradfield's loopy enthusiasm
whenever I successfully translated Catullus still ringing in my head--this book was a "must-read." I CAN say that
Wambaugh does his usual good job of capturing certain facets of the main characters and presenting the case, particularly
from the viewpoint of the investigators, whom he lionizes. (Unfortunately, the intervening years have led to revelations about
their mishandling of evidence and own character failings...which tarnishes their victory somewhat.) He also succeeds in pointing
out the inverse relationship between intelligence and common sense that often exists among academics, and definitely existed
here. I found his description of sociopathic behavior and how it forged the bizarro bond between these two men especially
illuminating. However, it's what I usually like best about Wambaugh's books that forms the basis for my only criticism:
there's no mistaking the fact he's an ex-cop. That means he forms his judgments about the perpetrators, followers,
and even the victim early on and sticks to them. These people weren't quite so black and white. That being said, it's
a good read that captures the gothic feel it strives for, and makes me extremely sad for the mother and children who were
lost...and angry at people I respected who had so much potential.
Publisher’s Weekly said of Echoes
in the Darkness, “The bizarre, seven-year-long case of an Upper Merion, Pa., high school teacher, Susan
Reinert, found murdered in 1979, and her two missing children receives masterful treatment from police novelist Wambaugh,
who is now building a reputation as a true-crime writer. He shows the dead teacher's lover, colleague and beneficiary
of her insurance policies amounting to about $750,000to have been a superficial intellectual, able to dazzle impressionable
high school students and to gather around himself a coterie of naive and trusting neurotics. There is no doubt in the author's
mind that William Bradfielda Pied Piper of the chronologically adult but psychically underdeveloped committed the crime in
concert with the former principal of the school, Jay Smith, whom he portrays as a sociopath. The skein of murder is highly
complex, but Wambaugh unravels it superbly.”
Publisher’s Weekly said of Hollywood
Crows, “Gallows humor and the grim realities of street police work coexist uneasily in this less than
stellar follow-up to Hollywood Station (2006) from MWA Grand Master Wambaugh. Nathan Weiss, known as Hollywood Nate for his
acting ambitions, and his friend Bix Ramstead are now assigned to the LAPD's Community Relations Office, which handles
quality-of-life issues and whose members are referred to as Crows. Weiss and Ramstead both become ensnared by a stunning femme
fatale, Margot Aziz, who's in the middle of a contentious divorce. Aziz is trying to gain the upper hand over her husband,
who operates a seedy nightclub but stays on the good side of law enforcement with well-timed donations to police charities.
Aziz's scheming follows a fairly predictable path, and there's not much suspense about the outcome. Through the eyes
of an eccentric collection of beat cops, Wambaugh gives a compelling picture of what policing is like under the federal monitor
appointed to oversee the real LAPD after the Rampart corruption scandal, but characterizations are on the thin side and some
readers may find the callous cruelty off-putting.”
The Library Journal said of The Blooding,
“Wambaugh, best known for his books dealing with American crime and detection, here tells the engrossing story of two
British sex murders and the police hunt for the killer. The title stems from a procedure of genetic fingerprinting detected
by examining blood samples, and used by the police to catch the murderer. Armed with the new discovery for detection, the
police launched a massive drive to "fingerprint" men in the Narborough village area. Wambaugh gives an inside look
at the police and their intense and, at last, successful drive to catch the murderer. He also discusses the process, and some
of its limitless possibilities. An excellent account of murder, detection, and this amazing scientific discovery.”
One reader of Lines and Shadows
said, “A realistic journey into the forbidden zones of our border lands with Mexico. Mr. Wambaugh's skill as a writer
takes the reader on a nerve-wracking, hair-standing trip into the danger zone traversed every night by the illegal immigrants.
A must read for all Wambaugh fans and a good starting place for those who wish to become fans.”
One reader of Finnegan's Week
said, “Wambaugh has a flair for scriptwriting equal to Quinton Tarantino at his best. He's brutal, sly, topical,
sharp, intense and outrageous all at the same time. This novel can be a bit silly at times, but never does it become stale.
"Finnegan's Week" should appeal to readers of a wide variety of tastes, and I'm surprised that Wambaugh
doesn't have a larger following than he has. His plots weave in and out, and he always finds a unique way to bring it
all together at the end. His razor-sharp wit sets him apart from the rest of the thriller writers out there. A great, fun
read with a superior style.”
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