CompleteMartialArts.com - Hollywood Station: A Novel
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List Price: $24.99
Our Price: $7.64
Your Save: $ 17.35 ( 69% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Little, Brown and Company
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2006-11-28
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Studio: Little, Brown and Company
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Editorial Reviews:
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They call their sergeant the Oracle. He's a seasoned LAPD veteran who keeps a close watch over his squad from his understaffed office at Hollywood Station. They are: Budgie Polk, a 27-year-old firecracker who's begrudgingly teamed with Fausto Gamboa, the oldest, tetchiest patrol officer. Andi McCrea, a single mom who spends her days studying at the local community college. Wesley Drubb, a USC drop-out who joined the force to see some action. Flotsam and Jetsam, two aptly named surfer boys who pine after the petite, but intrepid, Meg Takara. And Hank Driscoll, the one who never shuts up. Together they spend their days and nights in the city's underbelly, where a string of seemingly unrelated events lures the cops of Hollywood Station to their most startling case yet: Russians, diamonds, counterfeiting, grenadesa reminder that nothing's too horrific or twisted for Los Angeles. Here, it's business as usual. For the first time in 20 years, Wambaugh revisits the kind of story he tells best: life in the LAPD. Not only have his fans been waiting for this comeback, but readers of the new generation of crime writing will have great interest in this book.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, Gritty and Disturbing
Comment: I had a long drive ahead of me and I was going alone. I'd started HOLLYWOOD STATION, was only able to get through the first couple chapters before I had to start off, so I went first to my local independent bookstore and bought the book on CD read by Adam Grupper. Then I got on Highway 5 out of southern Oregon and pointed my car toward California and was sucked right into the Hollywood Station.
First off nobody knows how to write cop talk and make his readers believe better than Joseph Wambaugh. He is the master and after a decade away from writing, he's come back to prove it once again. I've read and loved Finnegan's Week and Fugitive Nights. But this is different. Yes there is some humor her, but no more than you'd find on a typical cop day on the Hollywood Beat.
This is not a one story book. Like Jack Webb used to say, there are a thousand different stories in the city. Well, he said something like that on the old Dragnet program, I'm sure I've misquoted, but you get the idea. There are several story the revolve around about a dozen cops and a half dozen crooks that all tie together in the end the way only a true storyteller can weave together loose ends.
Among the cops we have the surfer cops, Flotsam and Jetsam, the girl cops, Budgie and May, the aging cops, Fausto Gamboa and Merve the Oracle. There's the wannabe actor Hollywood Nate and his rich boy partner Westly Drubb. Nate wants to make a low budget movie and guess whose daddy he wants to bankroll the project.
We have tweekers (methamphtamine users incase you didn't know) Farley Ramsdale and his skinny and almost toothless girlfriend Olive Oyl who run afoul of Russian bumbling bad guys Cosmo Betrossian and his large breasted girlfriend Ilya who isn't above using her body to get what she wants. And there are some real Russian bad guys too.
The LAPD after Rodney King has the feds doing oversight and the cops are all walking on thin thread, high above the ground and one can't help but wonder how the citizens of the City of the Angels can feel protected when cops are afraid of doing their jobs, when their every move can be questioned, when the can be fired by bureaucrats. This is a better than excellent book, an eye-opener too. Things gotta change in L.A. Maybe this book will help bring that change about.
Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Customer Rating:
Summary: Swear words fill in for lack of a thesaurus
Comment: A big bag of wind of a book. Although I'm listening to the audio edition.
Adam Grupper is an excellent narrator but even he can't make this book interesting. Just a lot of low life tales and no real story. Once in a little while there is a clever one liner but not enough real humor to say it's funny or laugh out loud. I listened to Hollywood Crows which was a little bit better.
Olive is a bit dated. The dumb broad should be a thing of the past. A real lame character. I've never met any female as dumb as Olive in my long life. Maybe one but that was years ago. Olive is just a prop for other even lamer one liners, boring.
I will not bother with this author anymore.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The King is Back!
Comment: I cannot add much to the five star reviews other than to say that I grew up on Waumbaugh's novels (and on the Waumbaugh inspired "Police Story") and it is good to see him return to his LAPD roots with such a bang. Come on Joe, crank it up. Even your worst is better than most.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't Miss It!
Comment: This is Wambaugh at his best. An incredible cast of fascinating characters. A very well plotted story and completely satisfying read. Loads of humor and suspense!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Thin Blue Line of Humor
Comment: This book has its moments of classic Wambaugh police humor, and politically correct it is not. Having said that, it is nowhere near the epic police novels that were "The Blue Knight" or "The New Centurions." Hollywood Station is more a collection of funny cop stories, most no doubt (partially) true, than a tight novel. In fact, the plot does not even begin to roll out until well into the second half of the book. I grew up on Wambaugh and his early novels (as well as "The Onion Field") had an impact on who I am today. But this book did not measure up.
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