Hollywood Station - Tapa dura

"Joseph Wambaugh's many admirers will relish every wry and true-to-life scene of Hollywood Station, the latest entry in what will certainly be a lasting body of work. Welcome back, Mr. Wambaugh, and thanks for showing us, once again, how it's done." - George Pelecanos (George Pelecanos)

"Joseph Wambaugh invented the modern police novel and Hollywood Station is classic Wambaugh: brilliant characterization, impeccable plotting, stunning sense of place, and that special brand of irreverent, mordant humor for which Wambaugh holds the patent. This is the master at his best." - Jonathan Kellerman (Jonathan Kellerman)

"Oddball characters, quirky dialogue, and nimble plotting. Wambaugh is still the best in the business!" Kathy Reichs (Kathy Reichs)

vivid portrait of life in the Los Angeles Police Department...enthralling - Mail on Sunday (Mail on Sunday)

I have been waiting a long time for this book and two pages in I knew it was worth every minute, month and year. Joseph Wambaugh is the master of the modern police novel - no, scratch that, he invented the modern police novel. And Hollywood Station sets the standard once again. A story of cops working the street at the same time the streets are working the cops, it's full of the grit, humor and truth that make it impossible to put down." Michael Connelly (Michael Connelly)

"HOLLYWOOD STATION is a killer. Joseph Wambaugh set the standard with THE CHOIRBOYS and THE NEW CENTURIANS, and now he does so again. Wambaugh's trademark characters reveal today's LA cops through their strange and moving day-to-day lives - from arresting Darth Vader, to surfing at dawn, to losing a friend in the line of duty. No other writer illuminates the heart beneath the badge better or more honestly than Joseph Wambaugh. HOLLYWOOD STATION will make you laugh, cry, and keep turning pages. The master is back!" - Robert Crais (Robert Crais)

Outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Batman has assaulted Spider-Man. A Marilyn Monroe called it in and three Elvises witnessed it. Business as usual for the cops out of Hollywood Station, but while they deal with the costumed crackheads, prostitutes, purse snatchers, tweakers and ordinary lunatics that haunt the boulevards, in the streets behind the lights and crowds, the real Los Angeles simmers, never far from boiling point. Under the watchful eye of the veteran sergeant they call Oracle, the Hollywood Station squad are as different as the streets they police. Budgie Polk's back on duty while still breast-feeding her son, begrudgingly teamed with old school patrol officer Fausto Gamboa. Flotsam and Jetsam live only for surfing and the petite - but intrepid - Meg Takara. Andi McCrea goes off duty and into night classes, while rich kid rookie Wesley Drubb is as desperate to see some action as Nathan 'Hollywood' Weiss is to get his script developed. Under-staffed and over-worked, bound by red tape and hobbled by political correctness, these men and women hold the front line in LA's epicentre, but add a diamond robbery, the Russian mafia and a cluelessly ambitious glass freak and something has got to give...