Hollywood Crows

March 3, 2008
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.

Starred review from February 15, 2008
Wambaugh turns his Mars lights on perhaps the most unlikely of subjects: a Hollywood patrol division called CRO (Community Relations Office) made up of safe, contented, non-street-working cops who focus on quality-of-life issues. But, naturally, inWambaughs telling, life in this coveted divisionwhose members are known as Crowsoverruns with slapstick and social satire. The narrative veers between the Crows and the zany bunch of street cops at Hollywood Station (including surfer cops Flotsam and Jetsam) who contend with the inhabitants of what they call Americas kook capital. Bridging the gap between the real cops and the envied, despised Crows is street cop Hollywood Nate (so called because he is forever trying to break into the movie business), who gets an assignment to the Crows and finds himself in the throes of violent lust over Margot, a socialite separated from an edgy nightclub owner. Margot has plans for Nate and his partner, pulling them into a scheme so that she can walk away from her marriage and a perfect murder. We get this plot from Nates and Margots viewpoints. We also get classic Wambaugh cop stories, culled from actual cops, delivered in inimitable style. Wambaughs acid take on the postRodney King LAPD and the resultant consent decree and rule by bureaucrats is worth reading in itself. Another terrific Wambaugh ride-along.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)