Hollywood Station

by Joseph Wambaugh

Published 1 November 2006
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...

Hollywood Crows

by Joseph Wambaugh

Published 25 March 2008
The cops of Hollywood Station are still over-worked, under-staffed, bound by red tape, hobbled by political correctness, and constantly amazed by what the boulevards can throw at them. Scratch the surface of the 'reel' Hollywood and you'll discover the 'real' Hollywood. Here, Mickey Mouse is a crack addict, Marilyn Monroe is a man and when the moon is full, the neighbourhood gets even weirder.When the legendary Oracle is replaced by Sgt. Jason 'Chickenlips' Treakle - a politically correct, paper shuffling putz with a shiny shoe fetish - Nate 'Hollywood' Weiss leaves the mid-watch to become a Crow, or Community Relations Officer (C.R.O.). These are the guys dealing with domestic disputes, busting stalkers, bouncing paparazzi and calming chronic complainers, wannabe cops and loons of all varieties.It should be easy duty - to the other cops it's 'the sissie beat' - but being Hollywood, the loons are not in short supply and not everything is at is seems. So when Hollywood Nate and fellow crow Bix Rumstead find themselves caught up with bombshell Margot Aziz, they think they're just having some fun.
To them, Margot is a harmless hill bunny, stuck in the middle of an ugly divorce from a nefarious strip-club-owner. But Margot's no helpless victim: the femme fatale is setting them up so she can pull off the perfect murder and walk away with her ex-husband's ill-won fortune. But Margot isn't the only one with a deadly plan.