num_pages: 340
description: The Barnes &amp; Noble ReviewCrime fiction icon Joseph Wambaugh's highly anticipated Hollywood Station -- his first novel in a decade (since 1996's Floaters) -- marks his triumphant return to the Los Angeles Police Department, the locale of some of his most memorable works, like The New Centurions, The Onion Field, and The Choirboys. In an LAPD shackled by a federal consent decree, the officers of Hollywood Station spend as much time covering their butts from Internal Affairs henchmen, politically correct oversight committees, an overzealous media, and lawsuit-obsessed residents as they do patrolling the streets. The understaffed and overworked officers -- a misfit group that includes surfer dudes, aspiring actors, single mothers, and ornery old-timers -- do their best to combat the never-ending flow of drug pushers, prostitutes, crazed panhandlers, and roving gang-bangers. But a series of peculiar heists sets the officers of Hollywood Station on a collision course with some of L.A.'s most vicious -- and desperate -- criminals As a former LAPD detective sergeant, Wambaugh has a hard-nosed perspective on the unpleasant realities of police work, and that's what powers this addictively page-turning novel. The brilliantly authentic dialogue, the brutally realistic sequences involving a virtual parade of demented perps (the homeless guy who can defecate on cue, the flasher dressed as Darth Vader, et al.), and especially the profoundly moving insight into police officers' personal lives make Wambaugh's long-awaited return to the LAPD (it's been more than two decades since 1983's The Delta Star) an absolute triumph. It's fitting that Wambaugh was recently honored by the Mystery Writers of America as a Grand Master -- Hollywood Station is yet another masterwork. Paul Goat Allen
title: Hollywood Station
titlecomplete: Hollywood Station (Hollywood, #1)
genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Humor, Police, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Novels, Audiobook
ratings_count: 3699
places: Los Angeles, California
series: Hollywood Station Series
publisher: Not Avail