Wambaugh succeeds by never letting us lose touch with the inherent human goodness always lurking in most of the cops. Sometimes funny, oftentimes surprising, powerful & disturbing all rolled into one. Normal guys, mostly younger, struggling with their own demons while sent out to police those of others. Constant conflicts between right & wrong, between accepted behavior amongst police & an offence if done by the public, and an entire system established to attempt to uphold moral standards of society run by an insidiously corrupt hierarchy.

Such a thankless job.then & today, I'm sure.

Dated with respect to attitudes of the time in the 1970's towards blacks, gays, etc., yet those attitudes reveal so blatantly the impossible task LA policemen had in attempting to carry out their duties. Bart's 2015 #1 - Slow-starter that eventually picked up steam & led to a somewhat sad, but powerful conclusion. There may be more current books but Wambaugh was one of the earliest writers to pull the curtain back on 20th century police work. If you haven’t read any Wambaugh, this is an easy introduction to him and an opportunity to get to read his style. Sometimes the stories are funny, sometimes they are sad and at others they are terribly tragic.ĭon’t look for anything other than a dated portrait of policing in Los Angeles circa the 1970’s and an entertaining novel. A group of police officers convene an unofficial support group/drunken bacchanal in the park at Echo Lake where they vent about their job as police officers.Įach chapter focuses on a pair of officers and the things that occur on their shifts.

This is the 1970’s and sexism, free love and political incorrectness runs rife. It is definitely a snapshot in time and given everything that has come out about the LAPD since it was written, it really speaks to the culture that existed in the past. I read this book years ago when it first came out.

The choirboys book