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...
This was really great. Different than other crime novels I’ve read lately, it focused more on the people than on the crime. Wambaugh grabbed me from the start with a fast-paced, no added narration dialogue between two cops forever known only as “Flotsam” and “Jetsam”. From there you meet an increasingly colorful cast of characters that includes cops and criminals alike. I thoroughly enjoyed this sojourn to “Hollyweird”.
