In movies and in books, sequels are commonplace, but sometimes they appear in unlikely places. There's never been a true sequel to a James Bond movie, merely subsequent movies featuring the same character, yet later this year, that rule will change with A Quantum of Solace, which directly follows up on Casino Royale. Similarly, Joseph Wambaugh has never really been one for sequels, but that has changed with Hollywood Crows, which features the further adventures of the cops of Hollywood Station.

Crows are the nickname given to cops who are part of the Community Relations Office, a division of the LAPD that focuses, naturally enough, on developing a better relationship with the community. The Crows focus on quality-of-life complaints such as noise violations. Two of the Hollywood Station cops have moved on to the CRO: Ronnie Sinclair, a well-meaning policewoman who needs to transfer out of her current job and "Hollywood" Nate Weiss, who's more interested in being a movie star than cleaning up the streets.

As with many of Wambaugh's books, this book is more character-driven than plot driven as it deals with many cop characters and their adventures and misadventures. For example, there are the two surfer cops known as Flotsam and Jetsam, the hard-hitting Gert Von Braun and the rookie Gilberto Ponce who can't convince anyone he's not Hispanic. Gone but not forgotten was the mentor and unofficial leader of the station, the Oracle. Instead, there is now the supervisor Sergeant Treakle, a bureaucrat who screws up every time he tries to anything cop-like.

There is a plot, however, involving the nasty divorce between Ali and Margot Aziz. Ali is a shady nightclub owner who recruits a drug-addled petty thief to burglarize Margot's home, though there is a more sinister agenda afoot. The beautiful Margot has schemes of her own, part of which involves seducing Hollywood Nate, and if that doesn't work, using another cop instead.

Prior to writing Hollywood Station, Wambaugh had a long hiatus from novel writing. That book showed he wasn't rusty and the sequel shows that the quality wasn't a fluke. Hollywood Crows is another top-notch novel sure to please both those new to Wambaugh and his old fans as well. With plenty of dark humor and suspense, this is crime fiction at its best.

After reading "Hollywood Station" and being disappointed, I was reluctant to pick up "Hollywood Crows." But, I'm glad I did.

Hollywood Crows are actually CROs (Community Relations Officers). They deal with "quality of life issues" and are often considered "teddy bears in blue." Many cops consider it a "sissy beat" and Crows as less than "real cops."

Wambaugh keeps the same police officers and venue from Hollywood Station, but delivers a much stronger plot. A bitter divorce and custody battle between strip club owner Ali Aziz and his beautiful dancer wife, Margot, drives the story. Several of the Crows and Leonard Stilwell, a two-bit criminal, become entangled in the mess.

Wambaugh keeps the reader guessing about how deeply a couple of the Crows will get involved and how the story will end. Unlike "Hollywood Station," I couldn't wait to see how the book ended.

This is a strong, satisfying effort from Wambaugh. It's much more along the lines of what I expect from this great author.

After an absence of about a decade, Joseph Wambaugh -- the Ed McBain of Los Angeles -- has returned at the top of his game.

Wambaugh's police procedurals, like those of his contemporary McBain, are an absolute delight to read. The spot-on character profiles of each of the policemen and women of Hollywood Station, the pitch perfect dialogue and the neck-snapping plot switches from tragedy to farce and back again make this book a riveting page turner. I read it cover to cover on a flight from Boise to Baltimore, and felt a little bereft at the end because it came all too soon. But I can quickly cure what ails me by reading the prequel, Hollywood Station.

As for the plot, there is a central story regarding an estranged husband and wife who -- actually, there's no way to describe their story without giving too much away. Read, savor, be surprised. But also take the time to relish the numerous mini-dramas scattered throughout the book.

Hollywood Crows will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you pause and think about the human condition. In short, it will do everything a great book should do. And to think, it is "just" a police procedural!

HOLLYWOOD CROWS is Joseph Wambaugh's sequel to Hollywood Station, both darkly humorous novels featuring the cops of the LAPD's Hollywood Division. Mind you, I drive through the district and cross Hollywood Boulevard twice a day to and from the 9 to 5. I never think of the place as glamorous or gritty, but only as a potential traffic snarl, especially when the Kodak Theater is prepping for an event such as the Academy Awards. So, when Wambaugh's characters include the whack jobs and petty crooks that hang around Grauman's Chinese, I guiltily think that I need to get out more to experience the native culture. (I have been to the Hollywood Farmers' Market held at Ivar and Selma; it's pretty cool, and I'm surprised Wambaugh hasn't included that weekly Sunday event for local color.)

Both books essentially revolve around the beat's uniformed cops. HOLLYWOOD CROWS brings front and center the officers of the division's Community Relations Office (CRO, or "Crows") who, with their anti-crime brothers and sisters in blue, react to the area's underbelly of violence, weirdness, and general antisocial tendencies. Specifically, the Crows confront "quality of life issues: chronic-noise complaints, graffiti, homeless encampments, abandoned shopping carts, unauthorized yard sales, and aggressive panhandlers."

As I remember, HOLLYWOOD STATION was a series of vignettes starring several of the author's fictional heroes as they "serve and protect", i.e. keep the lid on, in the face of assorted provocations. HOLLYWOOD CROWS is that too, but it also includes a substantial subplot involving a CRO officer with an Achilles heel and the deviously plotting, estranged wife of the owner of a local nudie bar. Perhaps because this subplot interrupted the flow of the rest of the book, I wasn't enamored of the whole as much as I was with the first of the two. Four stars, therefore. Perhaps I'm just getting bored with a concept that's already showing staleness around the edges. Perhaps I should go walk Hollywood Boulevard and window shop the slutty lingerie emporiums; the wife's birthday is coming up.

Hollywood Crows is the second Wambaugh novel that follows a group of Police Officers in the Hollywood Station. Once again it tears the top off Hollywood culture and shows the seething underbelly of criminals and down and outs who prey on anybody they can. It also highlights the turmoil of a Police Dept trying to be everything to everybody, an impossibility, but the "feel good" administration won't hear what everyone is telling them.

The charecters are extremely well defined and believable, especially if you have been a Police Officer, we can relate to them all.

Well done Joe, another great book added to my collection. I await your next..

Joseph Wambaugh's HOLLYWOOD CROWS receives Christian Rummel's fine audiobook voice, seasoned with years of experience, as it tells of seduction, booze, burglary and murder in Hollywood. Add a beautiful woman into the mix and you have a riveting, fast-paced winner that springs to life in audio.

Hollywood Crows is very funny most of the time but, it has a sad ending.
The story tells the story of police officers who are members of the community relations team of the Hollywood Station. There are also police officers who are members of the crime division. Joseph Wambaugh has created interesting and believible characters. There are small time crooks and also slimballs both male and female. The police officers in for the most part are honest cops . The story has memorable characters and a good plot. It's a great read.

"Hollywood Crows" is a terrific novel, with colorful characters and an endless supply of cops-and-robbers anecdotes, sometimes hilarious and sometimes tragic, but always fascinating.

There's a plot too, but, really, who cares? It's the characters and the anecdotes that make the book so entertaining.

And if that's what appeals to you, then I highly recommend Wambaugh's "Choirboys," which was even more hilarious.

Having read this novel, my Wambaugh total is now up to - well - one, to be exact. It's about LA Cops and LA people, and provides a little peek into the sordid underbelly (apologies, but I always wanted to get an opportunity to say that) of life on the Hollywood streets.

The story isn't about the famous sign or the stars on the pavement, and it's not about black birds or old women, and to be quite honest, the plot isn't really that good in the first place, but the black humor and the low morality level is what keeps the reader turning the pages.

On the side of law and order (chung-chung!) we meet Matthew McConaughey-type surfer cops Flotsam and Jetsam, who have a knack for finding trouble and a lot of true grit (from the beach). There's veteran Bix Ramstead, a loving family man coasting towards retirement, and then there's potentially famous actor Nate Weiss biding his time before being discovered. There's a trio of strong female officers named Cat, Ronnie and Gert, and a few others including the officious and clueless Sergeant Treakle, but you can read about them for yourself.

On the civilian side, there's a weaselly little cokehead named Leonard, a strip club owner named Ali Aziz, his ravishingly beautiful wife (and ex-employee) Margot, and a Mexican pharmacist who's willing to turn the other cheek for a treat and a trick. You'll also find out what goes on behind the scenes with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and all the other characters on the strip.

Naturally, some of them come into contact while Wambaugh turns his all-too-human characters into the terribly obvious story-line, and although he blows most of the suspense by straight-out telling you most of the details, there are one or two little twists he keeps until the right time. He also hits pretty hard at police procedure and bureaucracy in the light of the need to maintain an untarnished image after the Rampart affair.

I'm gathering that he's written better books, and although I don't think this is one of them, it has enough juicy stuff to make you look.






Amanda Richards, July 22, 2008

This like his last to a while to get moving but once it was rolling is was a great edition to his writting.

It's good to get some of the real street stories. We know they are real, only real stories are this crazy. The plot is thin, but the human pain real, as officers damaged by what they have seen, fail. Well done.

As with all the author's LAPD books, the characters are why you will enjoy the book. Wambaugh, like Jack Webb and Dragnet, are willing to stray from the usual territory of Robbery/Homicide or Narcotics Units and look at other aspects of police work. In this story Community Relations has center stage. They are kind of the JVs of the Hollywood Division talking care of complaints from irate citizens more than tradition crimes. Of course major crimes are weaved into the book along with the mudane duties of the CRO officers. The characters from Hollywood Station are back and the brief scenes with FX the motor officer are worth the price of the book alone. Poor LAPD trying to get by in a PC world where liberal shibboleths define what they can do.

Like police work, Wambaughs stories have changed and kept up with the times. The problems with politicians, administration that has no idea how the job is done and the incredible loops that must be jumped through just to get the job done reflect today's police work.
Wambaugh's character profiles and story lines are as good as ever.
The worst part about any Wambaugh novel is getting to the end and waiting for the next one to come out.

I started reading JW novels in college 30 years ago. I have read them all. After a long pause he put out Hollywood Station--a fun little read. I was expecting the new one, Hollywood Crows, to be about as good. But I was surprised to find out I could not put this one down. I'd have to say...impulsively perhaps...that this is one of my favorite books of his. I'm just stunned to read a few bad reviews, one calling it boring.

I will admit that I know Hollywood from many visits and that adds to the experience for me. But whatever it is, I just love this novel.

TO THE AUTHOR: I suspect there's many more like me that want the setting to stay in Hollywood for a while...it makes for good stories...as you well know! Great job.

Another great read by Joseph Wambaugh. Appears not much as changed since I worked the Hollywood area in the late 70's, brought back some memories. Being retired from police work, just reading the book, I was able to place myself in the shoes of the characters, nothing really changes. Wambaugh does a good job pulling all the characters together, good humor, tells it like it is, and the book was very difficult to put down.

I started reading JW novels in college 25 years ago. I have read them all. After a long pause he put out Hollywood Station--a fun little read but not his best. I was expecting a similar quality in the new one, Hollywood Crows. But I was surprised to find out I could not put it down. I'd have to say...impulsively perhaps...that this is my favorite book of his. I'm just stunned to read the reviews calling this boring. I will admit that I know Hollywood from many visits and that adds to the experience for me. But whatever it is, I just love this novel.

To the author: I hope you keep on cranking out more stories in this Hollywood series Joe; I suspect there's many more like me that want the setting to stay there for a while...it makes for great stories...as you well know! Great job.

I LOVE ALL OF JOSEPH WAMBAUGH BOOKS. HOLLYWOOD CROWS IS CONTINUED FROM HOLLYWOOD STATION. JOSEPH WAMBAUGH WAS A LOS ANGELES COP AND WRITES ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD POLICE DEPT AND ALL OF THE STRANGE PEOPLE WHO WERE ON HIS BEAT, GOOD AND BAD.

Having been a longstanding admirer of this author, I did not hesitate to purchase this latest penmanship that was on offer.
I was not disappointed: truly magnificent prose, be it at times difficult for me to understand as I am not a native American speaker. Excellent plot, surprising twists as only once could I predict the outcome of a certain development accurately.
If you want to read what I believe is a true account of what policework is really like in one of the most famous places in the world, don't hesitate a minute and purchase this masterpiece!

Joseph Wambaugh has grown into, if not invented, a unique genre: the police story as opposed to the police procedural. In "Hollywood Crows", the emphasis in on the characters and incidents in their lives as opposed to the resolution of specific criminal acts. The technique is not in and of itself new: you can see the seeds of it in the classic movie "Naked City". Wambaugh's distinction is the skill with he tells these stories.

Sequel to his "Hollywood Station", "Hollywood Crows" follows many of the same characters. Hollywood Nate Weiss, a 36 year old cop who still has dreams of becoming a big-time movie actor; Ronnie Sinclair, survivor of two failed marriages; Flotsam and Jetsam, for whom police work is a diversion from their real life as Malibu surfers; the officious Sergeant "Chickenlips" Treakle; Compassionate Charlie, the crude, insensitive detective; Cat Song, the Korean woman police officer and so on. Quite a collection, all of whom - like all of us - are dysfunctional in some way, small or large. Of course, police can't exist without criminals or potential criminals and there's no shortage of those here: Margot and Ali Azizz, the battling soon-to-be divorcees who want misfortune to befall the other; Leonard, the surprisingly sympathetic crackhead who is always looking for an easy and illegal score.

Overall, the plot is thin, but it makes no difference. The focus here is on the insanity of being a Los Angeles cop, not on resolving some crime or other. The story is episodic reflecting the foibles of each of the characters. Hollywood Nate, for instance, when he is not sitting at the Farmer's Market eavesdropping on a group of very old and unemployed movie directors and writers, is always hunting for his big breakthrough part in the movies or seeking new women. He notices the gorgeous Margot Azizz, stops her for a traffic violation and thinks he has wangled an invitation from her. In fact, the beautiful Margot has plans for Nate Weiss.

Ronnie Sinclair is a woman police officer just trying to make it through life. She has a two year old son and two failed marriages in her past when she is appointed to the Community Relations Offices (the Crows in the title), that becomes involved in quality of life issues such as excessive noise in order to free other officers to fight "real" crime. The CRO is also painted in unflattering terms as part of the response to the suffocating consent decree imposed on the LAPD in the wake of the Rodney King incident and Ramparts Division evidence planting scandal. It is clear that the police of Wambaugh's novel don't appreciate this goody two-shoes. They'd rather do things the old-fashioned way and put people away in jail no matter what.

The book moves in fits and starts with often hilarious interludes. Some of the vignettes are out-loud laughing funny, particularly the scenes around Grauman's Chinese Theatre where hustlers dress up as popular movie characters such as Dearth Vader.

There is a big crime afoot and Wambaugh reveals it gradually. A two-bit crack addict, Leonard Stilwell, hovers and flits about the edges of the big crimes - and Stilwell is a sympathetic, if repulsive, character.

This is not a book for people looking for the excitement of a true police procedural where the detecive ploddingly sorts through the false leads to find his way to the perpetrator. This is a collection of stories about police in general and specific police officers. Some are gut busting funny - and a few are tragic. All are fascinating as Wambaugh shows us his skill as a storyteller. A fine and satisfying read.

Jerry

Hollywood Crows is worth reading, but it's Wambaugh light--a far distance from his top novels and top true crime books. The story is more anecdotal than plot-driven. There is a plot, but it's more of a thread connecting the work of an ensemble cast of Hollywood cops. We are drawn to the book by their personal stories, their jokes, anecdotes, ways and lore. There is a crime, actually a set of crimes, at the core, but the core is thin and the book survives by its atmospherics and glimpses into the way of life of a set of disparate individuals. Wambaugh is better equipped to write such a book than anyone and Hollywood Crows has its moments, but it will be disappointing to a reader of great books like The Choirboys and The Onion Field.

I unfortunately read the ghastly Hollywood Station last year. Wambaugh is apparently mourning the loss of the 70's when cops were fat, coarse, sexual harrassing, donut-eating, hard drinking uneducated lost souls who were at a loss of what to do for a living when they got out of the military service. And he made sure everyone knew every facet of these character flaws.

Today's cops are a totally different breed. Most departments won't look at your application unless you have a college degree; these young men and women are physically fit and they have gone into the work because they love it. Wambaugh wouldn't even recognize these modern people as cops I'll bet.

I won't read this book because it'll be nothing but cliches like Hollywood Station from what I've read. Wambaugh needs to scrap his style of writing and become a male Ann Rule. Take an existing and interesting true crime story and wring every last detail out of it. Example upcoming: the rogue cop Peterson who's 2nd murdered wife's body has yet to be found. This would be perfect for Wambaugh when and if it goes to trial.

Otherwise it's appearing Wambaugh is lamenting his youth with LAPD and keeps going back to it.

Yawn.....!

If you didn't know it was Joseph Wambaugh, you'd swear that Carl Hiaasen took a vacation in LA, hung out with the LAPD, and wrote this cynically funny tale of cops and those they protect, and especially those who they are protected from. But Hiaasen could never tell a police story with Wambaugh's authority, and only an ex-cop could render it with Wambaugh's sincere passion for the men and women in blue.

Like it's predecessor, "Hollywood Station", "Crows" (short for LAPD's "Community Relations Office") is told through a series of Hill Street Blues-style vignettes loosely wrapped around a central plot. In this outing, The Leopard Lounge, a Sunset Boulevard strip joint, it's oily owner, Ali Aziz, and his impossibly gorgeous soon-to-be ex-wife Margot combine to form the story's deliciously sleazy and very Hiaasen-like core of deceit, blackmail, sex and murder. Ali's problem is that Margot has custody of his beloved five-year old son and half the family fortune, and he'd prefer to see Margot as not only an ex-wife, but also an ex-person. Not that Ali has any corner on the duplicity market: the scheming Margot plumbs new depths of greed and corruption in pursuit of her wanton desires. It is Wambaugh's knack for character development and an easy, natural dialog that takes "Crows" above the pack and again secures the author's well deserved accolades for capturing life-inside-the-precinct. Back from "Hollywood Station" are Flotsam and Jetsam, the surfing sleuths whose SoCal beach banter nearly requires a translator, and will find you chuckling out loud. "Hollywood" Nate Weiss is still flashing his SAG card and looking for the big break, and hottie cops Ronnie Sinclair and Cat Song are as beautiful - and untouchable - as ever - and a new, predictably insufferable and clueless precinct house sergeant to replace the legendary "Oracle" of "Hollywood Station."

But this is not all fun and games - Wambaugh's distaste for the bureaucracy of the post-Rodney King federal consent decree is palpable and justified, as the restrictions placed on the department create mountains of work but little additional protection for LA's citizenry. And while Wambaugh's dark and cynical humor dominates, the story takes an unexpected but well executed turn to poignancy by the end, proving that in LA there are few winners and even less redemption.

In summary, well-paced and brilliantly crafted - a novel that captures LA life on the streets, at the same time highly entertaining and deeply sobering. A highly recommended read.

As a big fan anyway, this book delivers the same entertaimment as every other book he wrote.

Wambaugh has done it again: revealed the real character of cops and the true nature of their jobs, something no documentary or non-fiction could ever do.

There is one scene in particular I must tell you about, and it has to do with a community relations meeting with Hollywood locals. No, I won't spoil it with details, but I will tell you that when I tried to read it aloud to my wife I laughed so hard I broke into a sweat and could not compose myself for ten minutes.

Thanks, Joe, for a great read.

It's amazing to watch a guy at the top of his game over such a prolonged period of time, but Joseph Wambaugh continues to do great work. His characterizations are crisp and the daily travails of those peculiar people who choose to patrol the streets are presented objectively and poignantly (though there is a political message about consent decrees and the LAPD). While you know mayhem is going to happen, the characters continue on their separate ways until inexorably drawn together by master storytelling. This is police procedural mixed with great pathos. Flotsam and Jetsam, the surfer cops, are worth the price of admission.

Like some of the other reviewers, I struggled to finish this book. It was, quite frankly, boring. Wambaugh is a good writer but he was coasting with this one. A couple of the scenes were laugh out loud funny but the rest - not so good. I think Joe lost his edge when quit the force. There's something to be said for being in the action rather than listening to a real cop tell stories. I skimmed the last hundred pages to see if I guessed correctly on the outcome - yup, 100 percent.

Joseph W. Is at his best as usual. Others imitate him, but there is only one J.W.

Some reviewers have complained that this book is not literary. But there are many ways to convey insights, and Wambaugh is an expert in his style, which he essentially originated when he was still a cop himself. Beneath the humor lies sorrow; beneath the crime lies hurt; when you look, there is something beneath everything, and Wambaugh's technique allows you to enjoy the anecdotes while absorbing the meaning. One of his particular plot devices, which I have always enjoyed, is that he gradually introduces a large and varied cast, through a series of anecdotal adventures which appear to have nothing to do with anything, but in fact are crucial to moving the storyline.

The main plot regards the upcoming divorce between a nightclub owner and his wife. But all through the anecdotes, you see reflections of other troubled marriages: the Somali couple in an arranged marriage, the divorced men and women of the police force, the people who are still looking for love and those who have given up on it, and those who think they know what they want but waver when faced with choices one way or the other.

There are many things to think about while you read, but the book is so smooth and enjoyable that you may not think about them until later, when some resolutions (or lack of them, just as in real life) come back to trouble you. I read the book a few weeks ago, and took time to savor the ironies of plot and the fates of the characters before writing this review.

Don't get fooled into thinking this is just another Wambaugh cop story. He is a real professional, and he packs a lot into his tale. I look forward to many more works from this terrific author, and I highly recommend "Hollywood Crows" to readers. You don't even need to have read the earlier book, "Hollywood Station"...this is a stand-alone novel, and truly does stand on its own merits.

Joseph Wambaugh literally invented this kind of novel--the daily lives of LAPD police--on patrol in the streets as well as in their personal lives, through use of anecdotes, situations and quips. This is the 13th novel of the type since the first--The New Centurions--was introduced 14 years ago.

The story is about a crime, but more important, about the men and women of Hollywood South, cops like the two surfer cops--Flotsam and Jetsam-- and Nate Weiss, Cat Song, Ronnie Sinclair and Bic Ramstead. The plot describes the duties and foibles of the Community Relations Officers--the Crows--in their efforts to assuage the fears or complaints of citizens, such as illegal parking in an apartment house lot across from an upscale strip joint or the noise from a house whose front lawn is strewn with stolen supermarket shopping carts.

The strip club is owned by Ali Azis, who is going through a bad divorce suit with his wife, Margot. Each wishes the other dead (for different reasons). Margot's plot involve a couple of the cops, which leads to more complications, as she continually makes complaints about her husband's "threats" to establish a record. It is Wambaugh at his best, and should be read.

Highly recommended.

Hollywood Crows is a literary version of "Crime Watch." Joseph Wambaugh takes the reader on the streets with nine very different cops from the LAPD. Together with them we encounter lonely elderly women who see crimes everywhere (and who are sometimes right), unusual criminals, and logic-defying situations constantly reminding the cops and the readers that "This is Hollywood. Here anything can happen and usually does."

Through Joseph Wambaugh's characterizations he makes us either love or hate, sympathise with or be frustrated by the cops that make up the Hollywood CRO (pronounced `crow') team. Like them or not, you can't remain indifferent to them.

The one story that ties it all together is the tale of soon-to-be-divorced Margot and Ali Aziz. The cops only know Margot as a harmless socialite, dangerous to nobody but the libidos of the males she encounters. What they don't realize is that Margot is not the helpless victim she appears, but a femme fatale who knows exactly what she wants and won't scorn any methods to get it. Unfortunately, she's not the only one with a deadly plan, and through her scheming she manages to ruin the life of at least one very dedicated cop, who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

A clever person once said, "Write what you know." Joseph Wambaugh obviously took this advice to heart which shows in his writings. Having worked for LAPD himself, he can draw from personal experiences to properly depict the joys and sorrows of a police officer. Because of Wambaugh's ability to draw the reader completely into the story, I found myself utterly unable to put down the book once I'd started it, even if there were parts that disturbed me, parts where I missed a proper resolution, and parts that I wish had been left out, but know couldn't be, because they too are parts of a police officer's life.

Hollywood Crows is an interesting but depressing novel that reminds us that even the good guys aren't always good, and that things don't always end the way they should.

Armchair Interviews says: Count on Wambaugh to tell a good story-and not always one we want to hear.

The classic LAPD yarns by Joseph Wambaugh are back and I am happy about it. Don't look for egghead literature but fun, politically incorrect, dark humor which was almost invented by Wambaugh. I have laughed out loud several times reading this tale and hope for more.
Street characters and LAPD characters abound in this lusty story but as with most of the Wambaugh fare there is also raw darkness contained therein.

I admit that I love Wambaugh books and I'd rather read an average Wambaugh than none at all. Again we enter the world of cops & bad guys who all talk as though auditioning to be Britney Spears' speech writer (see now I'm doing it). So what if you have never met anyone who talks this way. There is your world and there is Wambaugh's world of So. Cal. As an exhile of S.C. (darn that witness protection program!), I enjoy reading Wambaugh's stories within stories, although, I do worry that those not of Calif. (i.e., "foreigners" as we Angelenos call you) will believe all of what he writes. As other reviewers noted, this is not his best. It took until the 100th page before seeing that there is an actual crime plot, but the side characters/stories were entertaining enough. Wambaugh may no longer be automatic on major best seller lists, but for those of us raised on his stories, he will always be #1.

The classic LAPD yarns by Joseph Wambaugh are back and I am happy about it. Don't look for egghead literature but fun, politically incorrect, dark humor which was almost invented by Wambaugh. I have laughed out loud several times reading this tale and hope for more.
Street characters and LAPD characters abound in this lusty story.

First I want to say that I liked this book. With that said, it is not very deep.

Most of the books I "read" are books on CD that I rip to my iPod. In this case the numbering of the disks caused the default sort to play disk 10 right after disk 1 skipping most of the disks. Usually I hand number so this doesn't happen, but this book was able to get it's information off the internet so I didn't check it (that won't happen again).

Since I do listen on a iPod, there is no need to change disks. So when disk 1 finished, disk 10 started. I didn't even notice that I missed most of the book. I only realized something was wrong when at the end of disk 10 the reader said "We hope you have enjoyed ..." and I knew after 2 hours of listening the book could not have been done.

After I realized what happened I have listened to the rest of the book. And again though it was easy listening, it wasn't too deep and I didn't get much more information about the main "plot" just a little more about the characters at Hollywood station.

Wambaugh appears to just be going through the motions. This latest novel, sort of a sequel to Hollywood Station appears forced and in some passages boring. I hope Joe gets back on his game soon. He's too good a writer to put out an inferior product. It's embarrassing. C'mon, Joe, you know you can do better.

The characters from HOLLYWOOD STATION are back in HOLLYWOOD CROWS. "Crows" is an acronym for Community Relations office. Wambaugh has a thing for the bureaucratic impediments implemented since the Rodney King incident, and the Crows are symptomatic.

Wambaugh spends time reintroducing the various cops and crooks from HOLLYWOOD STATION, so much time that the novel loses needed focus. There's Hollywood Nate, who wants to be an actor; there are the surfer dudes Flotsam and Jetsam, and there are several female officers such as Cat Song, a Korean American hottie, and Ronnie Sinclair, who works for the Hollywood Crows. A unique element is Wambaugh's journalistic tone. He refuses to judge the various criminal elements, including Leonard Stilwell a crack addict who also appeared in HOLLYWOOD STATION. I don't know why, but I actually like Leonard. He's such a sad sack loser on his way to nowhere, that I found myself pulling for him, even when he embezzled money.

The main plot line follows an acrimonious divorce case involving a strip club owner Ali Aziz and his beautiful young wife Margot. Ali hires Leonard to break into his house, ostensibly to steal some papers he needs. Meanwhile, Margot lures some of the cops into the fray, namely Hollywood Nate, who is always on the lookout for some stray female companionship, and Bix Ramstad, one of the Crows.

Margot is the one character Wambaugh belittles. She will get at least seven million from the divorce, but she wants everything Aziz has, rationalizing that her son Nicky should be able to live in the style to which he has become accustomed.

We also get a good look at the Hollywood scene, mainly the Grauman's Chinese Theater area where various addicts and street characters prey on the tourists. These characters seemed a bit exaggerated, but I've never been in Hollywood, so who knows?

This is a hard book to read in that there is no real lead character, and the Aziz plot line doesn't pick up speed until near the end. I found myself paging back over the last few pages every time I picked up the book, and sometimes even that didn't help.

Lest readers think that Joseph Wambaugh has gone ornithologist on them, Hollywood Crows are not winged creatures flying through the fabled entertainment community of Los Angeles. Crows is an acronym for "community relations officers" of the Los Angeles Police Department, ombudsmen and liaisons in the community. Given its sordid history, no other law enforcement agency in America needs the efforts of this group more than the LAPD.

Wambaugh has chronicled the lives of police officers for the past four decades. His first book, THE NEW CENTURIONS, was both critically acclaimed and a bestseller. His early novels were published while he continued to serve as a Los Angeles police detective. The combination of successful author and working cop led to some unusual circumstances that one might expect in crazy California. "I would have guys in handcuffs asking me for autographs," he was said to have remarked.

The modern police officers portrayed skillfully in novels by authors such as Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos, and on the small screen in countless variations of "Law & Order" and in HBO's critically acclaimed "The Wire," can trace their beginnings back to Wambaugh. He was one of the first writers to recognize that police officers have personal lives and often face pressure similar to most middle-class Americans. But these difficulties are often exacerbated by the fact that they confront crime and danger on the job. Wambaugh's books humanize police officers and their work with humor and grace; his popularity has changed crime fiction and given it a legitimacy that it lacked previously.

HOLLYWOOD CROWS, Wambaugh's latest work of fiction, follows his traditional plot structure of introducing readers to both hard-working police officers who truly care about their job and unthinking bureaucratic officers who seem incapable of working intelligently or innovatively at any level. It is clear that Wambaugh longs for a different era in police life, when officers had more independence to perform their jobs. At the same time, however, he recognizes that many of the changes in police work are the result of lapses in judgment and professional malfeasance by police departments.

Of course Wambaugh's novels would be incomplete without the other side of the law enforcement equation: the law breaker. One of the genuine endearing qualities of his wrongdoers is that they are not evil, mean geniuses plotting to destroy mankind. Instead they are generally inept crooks who often end up caught because of their own stupidity rather than through expert police work. That is the way it generally happens in the real world --- most bad guys catch themselves. If they were smart, they would have jobs with major corporations where they could steal far more than they can on the street.

HOLLYWOOD CROWS introduces readers to surfer cops, appropriately nicknamed Flotsam and Jetsam, and to female officers Cat Song and Ronnie Sinclair. The obligatory hardened veteran officer, Bix Ramstead, represents the contrast between modern police officers and those who served in a different era, when police work was the job of white males. Throughout the novel, audiences are reminded of the difference between the modern police department and police work exemplified by Jack Webb in "Dragnet." As Wambaugh details the daily experiences of the contemporary officer, he lets readers decide if society has benefited from the modernization of its law enforcement community.

HOLLYWOOD CROWS reinforces a point that police officers in both fiction and real life know all too well --- domestic quarrels can be the most dangerous aspect of police work. The ongoing divorce of strip club operator Ali Aziz and his beautiful wife Margot will entrap and ensnare several in devious criminal activity. Many years ago a wise judge once told me that he preferred hearing criminal trials to divorce matters because "you meet a better class of people in criminal cases." That observation is reflected in the distasteful details of the domestic battle between Ali and Margot. The couple has gone to war over custody of their son, and both combatants will do just about anything to win that struggle. Margot will use beauty, sexuality and her ability to manipulate men, while Ali will turn to his many connections with the criminal element of Los Angeles.

While domestic strife is the major storyline in HOLLYWOOD CROWS, Wambaugh has numerous additional plot threads throughout the novel. Some center on the personal lives of the officers --- including that of Nathan "Hollywood Nate" Weiss --- and their interaction with a community that has come to Los Angeles from every corner of the world. Others view the ongoing struggle of many members of an urban society to simply exist in a frantic and often unsympathetic social atmosphere. How the new multicultural police force interacts with those citizens in disputes that run from minor quarrels to major crimes serves as a backdrop of the book.

Reading Joseph Wambaugh is a joy. His books are humorous, even down to the unique and whimsical names he employs. But beneath the surface is the unmistakable fact that the experienced police officer still has important insights and beliefs about law enforcement and how it can function more effectively in our society. HOLLYWOOD CROWS is a wonderful novel written by a thoughtful policeman who still cares about that trade as well as the writing profession, which has made him one of America's finest police novelists.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

LAPD cops Nathan "Hollywood Nate" Weiss and Bix Ramstead are assigned as the newest "Crows" to the department's Community Relations Office. Weiss stops beautiful Margot Aziz, who ran a stop sign without slowing down. Although he tries to remain impartial officer, she hooks his libido as she explains she is in the throes of an ugly divorce from Ali.

Margot seeks to trump her spouse, who owns a nightclub that is allowed to operate freely because of his financial donations to various police activities. Meanwhile Margot believes she has a cop in her corner in the gullible Hollywood Nate and his naive partner Bix. Her plan is simple use these morons to kill her husband in order to gain his wealth; but she is unaware of a just as lethal counter operation.

The suspense subplot as described above offers no surprises as it goes just the way the audience expects. Thus the interest in HOLLYWOOD CROWS lies with the various police officers trying to do their job under federal monitoring of LAPD. The cops seem genuine with their frustrations and wary of the various social experiments to help the force overcome the scandal that led to oversight. Fans of Joseph Wambaugh will enjoy the latest police procedural at the HOLLYWOOD STATION in spite of the prime suspense element is weak.

Harriet Klausner

Wambaugh burst onto the scene in 1971 with "The New Centurions", followed shortly by "The Choirboys". In both novels he brought a then-fresh and insightful view to the scene of the LAPD of Joe Friday and Adam-13, portraying the cops of that era as flawed, human, and somehow more "real" than the depictions in standard TV fare.

Last year, after an absence of several years, "Hollywood Station" hit the shelves, and this year we have its sequel, "Hollywood Crows". Unfortunately, what was fresh and exciting in the 1970s is shallow and cartoonish in the early 2000s.

This book is primarily a series of vignettes featuring a cast of "characters" notable primarily for their eccentricity: a team of surfer-dude cops reminiscent of Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"; a detective fixated on developing an acting career in the movies; a sleazy Middle Eastern strip club owner going through a torturous divorce from his bombshell former-stripper wife; a junkie grifter looking for the big score.

There is actually a story plot line that brings many of these characters together, but if that were the whole book, it would only be about 50 pages long. The rest of this novel is simply a series of vignettes of police work a la Wambaugh, and though entertaining in a comic strip way, it's in no way reflective of either real life nor insightful in the way that "Centurions" and "Choirboys" were in their day. Though quirky, the characters are ultimately two-dimensional.

Kind of like a tofu burger, it may look good but it's ultimately unsatisfying.

I suspect Mr. Wambaugh could generate "novels" like this, with a decent story dressed with annecdotal adventures from his own or related experience, with a minimum of effort.

This novel had little to compel the reader to finish it, let alone understand anything about the thinly developed characters.

I was greatly dissappointd as I've enjoyed his iconic cop writing.

But still very enjoyable. The first reviewer of the book said Wambaugh was in "the declining years" of his work. Maybe that's true - we all grow old - but this novel, the second of the "Hollywood" series, is still better than many other crime novels by authors in fresh bloom.

I don't think Wambaugh's work can be compared to other crime novelists. His "procedurals" have scarcely any decernable plots - though this one has more than most - but are instead character studies of both the high and low forms of life in Los Angeles. Cops and criminals and everyone in between.

Wambaugh's work is not for everybody. It certainly would not appeal to the political correct among us. Maybe that's why I like his work so much.