Hollywood Crows: A Novel
by Joseph Wambaugh
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 54)
Read in April, 2008
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...more
Like it's predecessor, "Hollywood Station", "Crows" (short for LAPD's...more
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Read in April, 2008
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 sees 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 u...more
Through Joseph Wambaugh's characterizations he makes u...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Wambaugh fans, readers of Hollywood Station
This sequel to Hollywood Station is populated by the same cast of characters and like that earlier book it really does not have a single plot but is more the episodic lives of the cops in the Community Relations group of the LA Police, and what they experience. At the same time there is a single story line about a woman and a man who both want to kill each other and are plotting during the book on how to accomplish same. Wambaugh clearly knows the scene and his stories and dialgue feel authenti...more
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Another good brisk read from Wambaugh with his stock characters speaking as if in a very dark Neil Simon play. The dialog, although implausible, is often very funny and the quick pace is very welcome in this era of bloated four hundred page thrillers. Wambaugh is very good with low life characters especially since The Wire has set the standard incredibly high, although Wambaugh was creating them in his novels long before the TV series. The "plot", such as it is, doesn't really get ...more
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Read in June, 2008
I don’t know if this is technically a series, but this is the second book Wambaugh has written about Hollywood Station. What I like about these books is that they’re not *really* about the situation... Margot and Ali Aziz are not the center of this book. The book is about the cops. There’s a few familiar faces — Hollywood Nate and the surfer dudes Flotsam and Jetsam come to mind — and some new ones. And much like real life, there’s not always a happy ending. A good read.
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This is Wambaugh of old, back in his old haunts -- Hollywood Precint -- so if you liked Black Marble, Delta Star, Blue Knight and the rest of the early Wambaugh novels, you will like Hollywood Crows. wwl
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This sequel to Hollywood Station retreads the same formula and is similarly entertaining but not quite as fresh. The it's-tough-to-be-a-white-cop-in-LA spiel is getting old. And, like the cops of Hollywood Station, I miss The Oracle.
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
adults or older teens
Reading a Wambaugh is like being the fly on the wall in any busy metropolitan police station! The characters are just that, characters. The cops are human and not super heros. It was a good read and I enjoyed it.
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Read in June, 2008
I have enjoyed many of Wambaugh's books, and this one was ok, though a bit too predictable. I loved the "surfer" cops, and think he could easily do another book just concentrating on them.
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Read in May, 2008
Aw, this was just fun. Wambaugh writes the funniest, over-the-top dialogue, and almost every cop show from the last 25 years has tried to copy him.
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Read in July, 2008
Like all Wambaugh books, it's very entertaining and every so often as you read you think it's designed to be a screenplay.
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Read in February, 2008
Great book! I love mysteries and this also had a lot of quirky characters.
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
Those in my profession
Incredibly depressing. I loved it
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