The Black Marble [Mass Market Paperback]

Joseph Wambaugh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 1980

He is a damned good cop -- a burned-out homicide detective wrapped around a Smith & Wesson .38 and a vodka bottle. She is his partner -- twice divorced, nursing a grudge against men, obsessed by the awful temptation of love.

Joseph Wambaugh

The tough ex-cop who writes the hard-hitting best sellers -- a master storyteller whose characters are as powerful and as passionate as his plots.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wambaugh sidesteps all the cliches....He has the ability to portray women as flesh-and-blood, thinking human beings."

-- The Sun (Baltimore)

"First-rate...fast, colorful, and gripping...As touching as it is breathlessly entertaining."

-- Cosmopolitan

From the Inside Flap

He is a damned good cop -- a burned-out homicide detective wrapped around a Smith & Wesson .38 and a vodka bottle. She is his partner -- twice divorced, nursing a grudge against men, obsessed by the awful temptation of love.

Joseph Wambaugh

The tough ex-cop who writes the hard-hitting best sellers -- a master storyteller whose characters are as powerful and as passionate as his plots.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Dell Publishing (February 15, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440106443
• ISBN-13: 978-0440106449
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,104,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joseph Wambaugh, a former LAPD detective sergeant, is the bestselling author of eighteen prior works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Choirboys and The Onion Field. Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times' said, "Joseph Wambaugh is one of those Los Angeles authors whose popular success always has overshadowed his importance as a writer. Wambaugh is an important writer not simply because he's ambitious and technically accomplished, but also because he 'owns' a critical slice of L.A.'s literary real estate: the Los Angeles Police Department -- not just its inner workings, but also its relationship to the city's political establishment and to its intricately enmeshed social classes. There is no other American metropolis whose civic history is so inextricably intertwined with the history of its police department. That alone would make Wambaugh's work significant, but the importance of his best fiction and nonfiction is amplified by his unequaled ability to capture the nuances of the LAPD's isolated and essentially Hobbesian tribal culture."
Understandably, then, Wambaugh, who lives in California, is known as the "cop-author" with emphasis on the former, since, according to him, most of his fantasies involve the arrest and prosecution of half of California's motorists. Wambaugh still prefers the company of police officers and interviews hundreds of them for story material. However, he is aghast that these days most of the young cops drink iced tea or light beer, both of which he finds exceedingly vile, causing him to obsessively fume with Hamlet that, 'The time is out of joint.' He expects to die in a road rage encounter. For more information please visit www.josephwambaugh.net or www.hollywoodmoon.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joseph Wambaugh's best, June 3, 2000

By 

Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Black Marble (Mass Market Paperback)

"The Black Marble" is not only the author's best, but quite possibly the best of the entire genre. Wambaugh's trademark dark humor, authentic Los Angeles setting, and genuinely likable characters propel this fast-paced tale about the LAPD and a dog-napping scheme gone woefully wrong. A.A. Valnikov, a slovenly, boozy, but tender-souled Slavic veteran, is determined to rescue the doggie in distress. His new partner, Natalie Zimmerman, is determined to get him fired from the Force and out of her life... until she comes to know him and the nightmares which torment him. This book is as terrific today as it was twenty years ago, even if now a trifle "dated". It's often poignant, sometimes tragic, frequently hilarious, and ultimately heart-warming. Read it; it will leave you feeling good and wishing you could really meet the characters!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Wambaugh; humor and characters, September 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Black Marble (Mass Market Paperback)

This has all the Wambaugh hallmarks: eccentric characters, crude humor, intelligence. If you like action, humor, "real" people and not cardboard characters, police stories, this is a great book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wambaugh's best!, April 7, 1999

By 

Bruce A. (Sunny Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Black Marble (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved "The New Centurions" and "The Blue Knight" and "The Glitter Dome" and I find his latest books to be big disappointments. This book, however, is something else. Wambaugh takes it to a new level. Magnificent!!