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William Marling (Case Western University) said of Joseph
Wambaugh, he “is a former policeman who transformed the sub-genre of the police novel into serious literature of a hard-boiled
nature. His first four books and his work on the Police Story television series in the 1970s set standards of realism, dialogue,
and character development for subsequent writers or turned them in new directions.
The son of a policeman, Wambaugh was born in East Pittsburgh,
joined the Marines at seventeen, and married at eighteen. After an Associate degree from Chafee College, he joined the police
and rose through the ranks from patrolman to detective sergeant (1960-74). While working as a policeman, he attended Cal State
University Los Angeles, receiving his B.A. and M.A. From his Catholic faith to his young marriage and Marine service, Wambaugh
epitomized the police force. But then he began to "moonlight," as he said, writing about that life and his colleagues.
When he published The New Centurions in 1971 the acclaim was instant and unanimous. "Let us dispel forever the notion
that Mr. Wambaugh is only a former cop who happens to write books," wrote Evan Hunter in the New York Times Book Review:
"This would be tantamount to saying that Jack London was first and foremost a sailor. Mr. Wambaugh is, in fact, a writer
of genuine power, style, wit and originality who has chosen to write about police in particular as a means of expressing his
views on society in general.”
In 1954, Joseph Wambaugh entered the United States
Marine Corps. He was discharged in 1957 and began college, earning his BA in 1960. He joined the Los Angeles
Police Department, rising to the rank of Detective Sergeant. He left the LAPD in 1971 to pursue his writing
career full-time. In 1968, he earned an MA. Joseph Wambaugh is the author of Hollywood Station;
Hollywood Crows; Delta Star; The New Centurions; The Blooding; Echoes in the Darkness; Finnegan's Week; The Golden
Orange; Lines and Shadows; The Black Marble; The Blue Knight; The Choirboys; The Secrets of Harry Bright; The Onion Field;
Fire Lover; Fugitive Nights; The Glitter Dome; and, Floaters.
One reader of The Onion Field
said, “I lived in Los Angeles in 1963 and I've seen the movie several times, but not until I picked up a used copy
of the book out of the Good Will this last week did I read the written account. As usual, the book is ten times better than
the movie. It's gripping and very hard to put down. The sadness of what happens to the surviving police detective is so
frustrating and seems, today, so unnecessary. Of course, we forget that seeking help from therapists and even talking about
your innermost fears(called "burdening others" with your problems), etc. were not the vogue in 1963. If they had
been, this story might have ended differently. I was particularly interested in the author's references to local landmarks
which made the story come alive for me. What makes it eerier is that the area of the onion field where the murder took place
is not all that far from the city but even so, it's strictly away from city life, kind of up in the hills, pitch dark
at night and isolated with nothing but a big lonely highway running through surrounding fields growing a variety of crops.
Oddly enough, regarding the two sleazoid criminals, at times they seemed more intelligent than some of the defense attorneys.
Fantastic story! I predict it will stay with you for days after reading it.”
One reader of The Blue Knight
said, “Mr. Wambaugh's outstanding book still holds up after three decades. World-weary after twenty years on the
police force, Bumper Morgan reflects on the changing nature of police work and the potential for a new phase of his life when
he retires at the age of 50. He is exposed on a daily basis to the extremes of the human condition; from seamy survivalist
of poverty and drug-addiction to courageous, law-abiding citizens just trying to get by. Overweight Bumper wallows in a variety
of "freebies", especially food, that appreciative merchants heap upon him for helping them out throughout his career.
A realistic and compassionate depiction of a street cop. Absolutely worth reading.”
According to the book description of The
Choirboys, “Partners in the Los Angeles Police Department, they’re haunted by terrifying dark secrets
of the night watch–shared predawn drink and sex sessions they call choir practice. Each wears his cynicism like a bulletproof
jockstrap–each has his horror story, his bad dream, his night shriek. He is afraid of his friends–he is afraid
of himself.”
One reader of The Choirboys
said, when it “was published almost thirty years ago, I was a young Marine thinking of becoming a police officer. I
read Wambaugh's fiction back then because it provided a unique combination of humor and truth about police work. Or at
least it seemed as if it might be the truth - Wambaugh had been a cop and I hadn't. And of all his fiction, Choirboys
was by far the funniest... and at the same time, its story the most tragic and bittersweet.
Now I'm an old cop in a big metro area, looking
towards retirement. Every couple years, I read Choirboys again. It amazes me and overwhelms me to find that it rings more
true with every reading. The more I see of police work and of life, the more I realize how much humor and truth Wambaugh really
was able to put into this book. It's all there: the amazing things that happen in life, some horrible, some hilarious.
The camaraderie, kidding, and practical jokes that cops constantly use to keep their perspective. The way Wambaugh's cops
don't always like each other, but they always look out for each other. The supervisors and administrators - some good,
far too many bad. It's the truest book I've ever read and gets better every time I read it. I've given away a
lot of copies of this one.
I'm not sure, but I believe Choirboys was written
at about the time that Wambaugh was leaving police work to devote all his time to writing. The book is definitely written
from the perspective of someone who is willing to burn some bridges. It is unflinchingly realistic regarding the careerism
and hypocrisy that Wambaugh saw in many police supervisors and administrators, and in the politics of the department itself.
But Wambaugh never preaches, he satirizes, and he makes his reader laugh out loud again and again. The bottom line is - this
is the best cop book I know of. I hope you'll think so too, and I'm willing to bet that you do.”
According to the book description of The
New Centurions, “In a class of new police recruits, Augustus Plebesly
is fast and scared. Roy Fehler is full of ideals. And Serge Duran is an ex-marine running away from his Chicano childhood.
In a few weeks they'll put on the blue uniform of the LAPD. In months they'll know how to interpret the mad babble
of the car radio, smell danger, trap a drug dealer, hide a secret, and-most of all-live with the understanding that cops are
different from everyone else. But for these men, these new centurions, time is an enemy. The year is 1960. The streets are
burning with rage. And before they can grow old on this job, they'll have to fight for their lives.”
One reader of The New Centurions
said it “came as a bit of a surprise to me. I read other Wambaugh works, but they were written more recently. This book
was written back in the early part fo Wambaugh's career, and I feel under the false assumption that it was going to be
inferior. Boy, was I wrong. This is the most honest and perfect police novel I have ever read, and I liked it more than the
author's later work (which I love).
"The New Centurions" focuses on the lives
of three Los Angeles cops from boot camp to their 5 year anniversary on the force. Not a police procedural, the emphasis is
rather on the lives of the characters and the various experiences they go through as police officers. Alternately brutal,
funny, smart, sad, warm, philosophical, and ugly, "The New Centurions" is an extremely well-done piece of realistic
fiction. These characters could be real. I won't spoil anything here, but I have to recommend this book to anyone interested
in the cop lifestyle. I'm going to give this book to my brother who has contemplated becoming a police officer, since
I think the realism here can be an eye-opener.”
Publisher’s Weekly said of Fire Lover,
“Returning to print after a six-year hiatus, former LAPD detective sergeant and bestselling author Wambaugh (The Onion
Field, etc.) focuses on firefighters rather than his usual police beat. It's a surprising switch, but Wambaugh's regular
readers will not be disappointed, since sparks fly throughout this potent probe into the life of arson investigator John Leonard
Orr. Fascinated by fires in his L.A. childhood, Orr learned fire fighting in the air force. An eccentric loner with few friends
and a womanizer with a string of failed marriages, he was rejected by the LAPD and LAFD. In 1974 he joined the Glendale Fire
Department, where his gun-toting, crime-crusading capers earned him the label "cop wanna-be" from both police and
firemen. Rising in the ranks, Orr became well-known as an arson sleuth. He had a sixth sense for tracking pyros, but there
was one serial arsonist, responsible for the deaths of four, who remained elusive. In 1990, during the worst fire in Glendale's
history, some noted that Orr's behavior "seemed very peculiar." That same year, Orr was appointed fire captain
and began writing a "fact-based novel" about a serial arsonist who turns out to be a firefighter and in it Orr revealed
certain facts about the unsolved arson case that he couldn't have known through his work. Was Orr the serial arsonist?
Wambaugh recreates these events for a suspenseful, adrenaline-rush account of what one profiler dubbed "probably the
most prolific American arsonist" of the 20th century.”
Publisher’s
Weekly said of Fugitive Nights, “Wambaugh's latest, following The Golden Orange , promises
more entertainment than it delivers. The plot centers around PI Breda spok Burrows, a former LAPD detective, and three cops:
hard-drinking Lynn Cutter, waiting for approval of his disability pension and retirement; Jack Graves, whose life and career
were ruined when he killed a 12-year-old boy by mistake; and Nelson Hareem, an ambitious and aggressively manic young officer
hoping for reassignment from the county outskirts to Palm Springs. Burrows hires Cutter to determine why the wealthy elderly
husband of her client has apparently made a donation to a local sperm bank. Meanwhile, as Graves works to redeem himself,
Hareem tracks a mysterious fugitive--perhaps an international terrorist-- who beat up a cop at a desert airport, stole a truck
and disappeared. An unexpected resolution to Burrows's case precedes a wild chase during a celebrity golf tournament and
a bloody climax at a post-tournament party. While poking fun at the Palm Springs lifestyle, Wambaugh offers plenty of his
trademark cop humor, including a funny but essentially irrelevant prologue skewering President Bush and Sonny Bono. But in
this case, the whole equals less than the sum of its parts.”
Kirkus Reviews said of The Black Marble,
“The gross-funny-ugly L.A. Police Dept. jungle gym that was Wambaugh's Choirboys is just background this time -
terrific background for two so-so stories: the grisly kidnapping of a dog-show champion by an off-the-wall dog trainer; the
predictably offbeat hate-then-love affair between an all-at-sea detective on the way down and an all-together woman detective
on the way up. The two stories will eventually mesh, but for a while they alternate with teasing efficiency - first introducing
impoverished Pasadena divorcee Madeline Dills Whitfield, obsessive, love-starved owner of beloved schnauzer Victoria Regina;
then the odd couple in the cop-car - sweetly spaced-out, vodka-soaked Valnikov ("the non-sequitur king of the whole goddam
police department") and his appalled new partner Natalie Zimmerman; and, finally, supercreep dog-man Philo Skinner, overage
stud manque, with dangerous gambling debts, a superfluous wife, and dreams of Puerto Vallarta. While Natalie desperately tries
to convince the brass that Valnikov is a certifiable basket case, Philo manages to grab Vicky Regina at a dog-show and demands
a ransom Madeline can't pay - which brings Sgt. Valnikov onto the case (and into Madeline's lonely bed). And by the
time that Valnikov's solid, slogging detective work brings him face to face with Philo, a killer shepherd, and the mutilated
schnauzer for a bloody, endless gouge-and-grapple, Natalie isn't so eager to see her "Andrushka" in a straitjacket.
The Black Marble (that's what losers like Val and Philo always wind up with) should hive been better than it is: the police
station running gags are too running to be real, the black-comic touches (like a pet funeral) prove again that Wambaugh ain't
Waugh, and Andrushka and Natasha deserve better than a pure musical-comedy ending. But natural, strong, seductive storytellers
aren't a dime a dozen, and Wambaugh's one of them - even while making a lot of mistakes as he reaches for a broader,
less exclusively badges-and-guts audience.”
One reader of Echoes in the Darkness
said, “as a graduate of Upper Merion--with Jay Smith's signature on my diploma and Bill Bradfield's loopy enthusiasm
whenever I successfully translated Catullus still ringing in my head--this book was a "must-read." I CAN say that
Wambaugh does his usual good job of capturing certain facets of the main characters and presenting the case, particularly
from the viewpoint of the investigators, whom he lionizes. (Unfortunately, the intervening years have led to revelations about
their mishandling of evidence and own character failings...which tarnishes their victory somewhat.) He also succeeds in pointing
out the inverse relationship between intelligence and common sense that often exists among academics, and definitely existed
here. I found his description of sociopathic behavior and how it forged the bizarro bond between these two men especially
illuminating. However, it's what I usually like best about Wambaugh's books that forms the basis for my only criticism:
there's no mistaking the fact he's an ex-cop. That means he forms his judgments about the perpetrators, followers,
and even the victim early on and sticks to them. These people weren't quite so black and white. That being said, it's
a good read that captures the gothic feel it strives for, and makes me extremely sad for the mother and children who were
lost...and angry at people I respected who had so much potential.
Publisher’s Weekly said of Hollywood
Crows, “Gallows humor and the grim realities of street police work coexist uneasily in this less than
stellar follow-up to Hollywood Station (2006) from MWA Grand Master Wambaugh. Nathan Weiss, known as Hollywood Nate for his
acting ambitions, and his friend Bix Ramstead are now assigned to the LAPD's Community Relations Office, which handles
quality-of-life issues and whose members are referred to as Crows. Weiss and Ramstead both become ensnared by a stunning femme
fatale, Margot Aziz, who's in the middle of a contentious divorce. Aziz is trying to gain the upper hand over her husband,
who operates a seedy nightclub but stays on the good side of law enforcement with well-timed donations to police charities.
Aziz's scheming follows a fairly predictable path, and there's not much suspense about the outcome. Through the eyes
of an eccentric collection of beat cops, Wambaugh gives a compelling picture of what policing is like under the federal monitor
appointed to oversee the real LAPD after the Rampart corruption scandal, but characterizations are on the thin side and some
readers may find the callous cruelty off-putting.”
One reader of Hollywood Crows
said, “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.”
Publisher’s Weekly said of Echoes
in the Darkness, “The bizarre, seven-year-long case of an Upper Merion, Pa., high school teacher, Susan
Reinert, found murdered in 1979, and her two missing children receives masterful treatment from police novelist Wambaugh,
who is now building a reputation as a true-crime writer. He shows the dead teacher's lover, colleague and beneficiary
of her insurance policies amounting to about $750,000to have been a superficial intellectual, able to dazzle impressionable
high school students and to gather around himself a coterie of naive and trusting neurotics. There is no doubt in the author's
mind that William Bradfielda Pied Piper of the chronologically adult but psychically underdeveloped committed the crime in
concert with the former principal of the school, Jay Smith, whom he portrays as a sociopath. The skein of murder is highly
complex, but Wambaugh unravels it superbly.”
One reader of Lines and Shadows
said, “A realistic journey into the forbidden zones of our border lands with Mexico. Mr. Wambaugh's skill as a writer
takes the reader on a nerve-wracking, hair-standing trip into the danger zone traversed every night by the illegal immigrants.
A must read for all Wambaugh fans and a good starting place for those who wish to become fans.”
One reader of Finnegan's Week
said, “Wambaugh has a flair for scriptwriting equal to Quinton Tarantino at his best. He's brutal, sly, topical,
sharp, intense and outrageous all at the same time. This novel can be a bit silly at times, but never does it become stale.
"Finnegan's Week" should appeal to readers of a wide variety of tastes, and I'm surprised that Wambaugh
doesn't have a larger following than he has. His plots weave in and out, and he always finds a unique way to bring it
all together at the end. His razor-sharp wit sets him apart from the rest of the thriller writers out there. A great, fun
read with a superior style.”
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