Publication Date: November 26, 2008
On March 9, 1963, two men on a burglary spree were stopped as a result of a routine traffic offense by two plainclothes LAPD officers in an unmarked car. The men took the officers, both former Marines, to a field and executed one of them. The Onion Field is an in-depth analysis of the case by Joseph Wambaugh, an LAPD officer himself at the time.
Publication Date: April 3, 2012
Harbor Nocturne by Joseph Wambaugh, is the fifth book in Wambaugh’s Hollywood Station series. Jetsam, who lost his foot in the last book, is asked to take part in a Vice Squad sting to help catch Hector “The Collector” Cosso who is known for providing clients unusual requests and facilitating the sex slave trade in clubs in Hollywood for his boss, the very dangerous, Mr. Kim. When Hector runs into his high school friend, Dinko Babich, in a nightclub and is called away on business, he asks Dinko to transport the dancer whose “contract he bought” to a Hollywood nightclub. Dinko is struck by the youth, innocence, bad dancing and good looks of the 19-year-old Lita and tells her that she can call him for help anytime. When Lita is the sole witness to a possible crime, she goes on the run with Dinko’s help.
Publication Date: November 26, 2006
In Hollywood Station by Joseph Wambaugh, readers are introduced to the first Hollywood Station novel, to the colorful characters of the LAPD’s Hollywood division. While there is an overlying plot involving a jewelry store robbery, this book is more about the cop who is an aspiring actor, the wise and time-worn dispatcher, the breastfeeding mother returning to work and two cops who would rather be following the waves. As the Oracle says, “Police work can be the most fun you ever had.”