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Summary
Summary
When Dinko Babich, a young longshoreman, delivers Lita Medina, a young Mexican dancer, from San Pedro Harbor to a Hollywood nightclub, their lives are forever changed. An unexpectedly tender and moving love story develops among the cops and criminals who occupy the harbor, and soon Dinko and Lita are caught up in terror and peril through no fault of their own.
Some LAPD characters from Wambaugh's acclaimed "Hollywood Station" series are here: the surfer cops "Flotsam and Jetsam," aspiring actor "Hollywood Nate" Weiss, and young Britney Small, along with new members of the midwatch, all gamely coping with the wackiness of Hollywood. It's a tale only Wambaugh could have told, with his trademark dark humor and unflinching eye for detail.
Author Notes
Writer Joseph Wambaugh was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 22, 1937. He joined the Marines right out of high school, but later earned both a B. A. and M. A. from California State College in Los Angeles.
He worked for the Los Angeles Police Department from 1960 to 1974.
His first novel was The New Centurions (1971) and several subsequent novels have been award winners. The Onion Field won an Edgar Award (1984), and Lines and Shadows won the Rodolfo Walsh Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers (1989). He has worked creatively on several film and television projects, including Police Story, The Black Marble, The Choirboys and The Blue Knight.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
MWA Grand Master Wambaugh ventures into L.A.'s San Pedro district in his highly entertaining fifth novel to feature his Hollywood Station crew (after 2010's Hollywood Hills). Surfer cops "Flotsam and Jetsam" get their first "intelligence-gathering mission" to ferret out the "money guys" behind a ring of erotic massage parlors, whose human trafficking operation may have resulted in the deaths of 13 Asian immigrants smuggled in a container at San Pedro's shipping yards. Jetsam's amputated foot is their entry to a wealthy Russian with an infatuation with amputees. Meanwhile, a Romeo and Juliet love burgeons between Dinko Babich, a Croatian longshoreman, and Lita Medina Flores, a Mexican dancer whose roommate's sister was among the container's victims. Razor-edged dialogue punctuates the vignette-filled plot. Realistic criminals are well matched by Wambaugh's equally authentic police, including "Hollywood Nate" Weiss and a lazy cop nicknamed Unicorn, in this darkly comic, gritty look at life on the streets. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Wambaugh fills his books with over-the-top, crazy war stories, disturbing, sometimes revolting in their details and insights into human nature and made more shocking because readers know Wambaugh gets his stories from real cops. And, while that could be more than enough, Wambaugh embeds the stories he hears from cops within fiercely and ingeniously plotted mysteries. The war story-mystery combination works because cops naturally tell each other their stories in the downtimes between calls. This latest is part of Wambaugh's Hollywood Station series, in which police do battle against the crazies on the streets and in the hills. The action expands, this time, to the L.A. district of San Pedro, one of the world's busiest harbors, which boasts a harbor's share of lowlifes and career criminals. A love story starts when a druggie longshoreman takes the assignment of driving a young Mexican stripper from a harbor bar to a Hollywood nightclub, a decision that gets the longshoreman enmeshed in the sex-trafficking trade. Fans of Hollywood Station (2006), the first in the series, will be glad to see surfer cops Flotsam and Jetsam return, along with the always-ambitious Hollywood Nate Weiss, now pushing 40 and fearing that his chances to be discovered are as flimsy as his SAG card. A very fast ride-along, enlivened by cop gallows humor, snarky street altercations, and an insistent pull to the dark side.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This installment in Wambaugh's "Hollywood Station" series portrays the horrors of human trafficking and the smuggling across U.S. borders of young women from around the globe for exploitation in the sex industry. Croat longshoreman Dinko Babich's world turns upside down when he shelters Lita Medina, a Mexican illegal who dances topless in a local dive. Lita witnesses another dancer getting into their employer's car the day before the girl's corpse is found in a dumpster, making Lita a marked woman. The foreign-born or first-generation Americans whose parents came to America to plant roots and raise families collide with those here for a quick-illegal-buck and quicker exit when the law approaches. There also are numerous asides about the routine madness encountered daily by big-city police. Wambaugh is not a twist-and-turns writer; his character-driven plots are easy to follow, making them perfect audio fodder. -VERDICT Narrator R.C. Bray does an outstanding job of voicing the numerous foreign accents, jumping with skill and ease between men and women and among multiple nationalities. Overall, a perfect mix of material and narrator-grab it! ["The legendary Wambaugh's newest is chock-full of his trademark cop talk and offbeat side vignettes. His ability to weave a complex story together out of seemingly disparate elements lightens up some of the grittiness of big city police work," read the review of the Mysterious Pr: Grove/Atlantic hc, LJ 2/1/12-Ed.]-Mike Rogers, Library Journal (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
