Hollywood Moon: A Novel (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Full of glimpses into the workings of low-level tech crime, bestseller Wambaugh's entertaining third Hollywood station novel (after Hollywood Crows) provides lots of laughs and gasps along with a few tender sighs. Trouble ensues after a husband-and-wife team of identity thieves, the weak-willed Dewey Gleason and his domineering mate, Eunice, cross paths with Malcolm Rojas, a creepy teenager with major anger-management issues. The heart of the story, though, comes from the vignettes of life on patrol among the cast of the station cops, including Hollywood Nate Weiss, the actor turned cop; Weiss's beautiful partner, Dana Vaughn; and the surfer duo, Flotsam and Jetsam, who at one point engage in a hilarious, extended dialogue of surfer-speak straight off the waves at Zuma. Spare and punchy prose fuels descriptions so on target that readers will feel they are riding shotgun, gazing out on Tinseltown's tawdry landscape. (Dec.)
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Review

"Hollywood Moon has everything I love about Joseph Wambaugh--it's funny, then surprising, then suddenly shocking. This third installment in his Hollywood series is his best. The master of the police story just keeps getting better and better." (T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Renegades )

"Joseph Wambaugh's best book yet. Hollywood Moon is full of hilarious anecdotes that ring absolutely true, and the "through-story" about the Odd Couple computer thieves and the crazed stalker is especially strong. Most of all, I was deeply moved by the story of Dana Vaughn and Hollywood Nate. Re-encountering Nate and the surfer dudes and Compassionate Charley is like coming back to crazy but wonderful old friends. This book also made me eager to find a midget. And bowl with him." (Stephen King )

"[B]y turns hilarious, poignant and thrilling.... A meticulously realistic re-creation of cops' daily and, more important, inner lives.... One of the things that sets Wambaugh's cops and crooks apart from those in so many other mysteries and police procedurals is that he fixes both firmly in the same realistic social context.... The difference is that the cops, even in disillusion, retain something decent to which they can cling.... That constant is the spine that runs through Hollywood Moon as it has through all Wambaugh's LAPD novels. It's what allows you to find the black humor genuinely funny and to experience these masterful novels as something more than entertainment." (Los Angeles Times Tim Rutten )

"[W]hat other author could present cops, street people, and career criminals with such deadeye credibility? Or transpose slang up and out from the drug world into cop speak with absolutely perfect pitch? Only Wambaugh, former street cop and sergeant with the LAPD and author of 18 works of fiction and nonfiction..... In his latest, his fourteenth novel since the groundbreaking The New Centurions, the cops at Hollywood Station are trying to track a thug whose specialty is vicious attacks on women and various street criminals; in the process, the team sniffs out a high-tech scam. Crimes escalate and fun abounds." (Booklist )

"Full of glimpses into the workings of low-level tech crime, bestseller Wambaugh's entertaining third "Hollywood station" novel (after Hollywood Crows) provides lots of laughs and gasps along with a few tender sighs.... Spare and punchy prose fuels descriptions so on target that readers will feel they are riding shotgun, gazing out on Tinseltown's tawdry landscape." (Publishers Weekly )

"Hollywood Moon is the third novel in Joseph Wambaugh's series about the denizens of the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Division--and it is by far the best.... The story is told in the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master's uniquely readable style.... The book has a fast pace, the mood swings pleasingly from tragic to darkly comic, and the characters are memorable and believable, making Hollywood Moon the most enjoyable Joseph Wambaugh novel in more than a decade." (San Francisco Chronicle )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (November 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316045187
• ISBN-13: 978-0316045186
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,019 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than ever, December 7, 2009

By	quietstorm (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

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I was a young boy when I became aware of Wambaugh...a downtown movie theatre poster for an R-rated New Centurions I could not see, if memory serves. I started reading him when I was in my 20's, which was during the 80's. I have read them all, and re-read most of them starting in the late 90's. So I know this guy's books.

I love the three Hollywood books he put out in the past 2 or 3 years. I was not expecting them and I was pleased at how good they are. The second one was better than the first and this, the third one, is really dynamite and the best of the three.

Sometimes the wit and wisecracks from various characters and the humorous statements made in plot exposition sound like they come from the same person (which they do of course...the author). But if I had to chose, I'd leave all of it in because it's not a big distraction, and trust me, there are some priceless LOL lines.

The story is a page turner and towards the end I could not put it down. If you have any reason to think you might like it (e.g. liked one of his books) you probably will. You don't have to read the others to get anything in this book; it stands alone. If you like cop stories and cop dialog and weird but believeable street charactors you will enjoy it.

For Mr. Wambaugh: I vote the Hollywood series continue! It's a winner and just gets better and better. "We're gravy, bro!"

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ENGROSSING, ENTERTAINING - QUINTESSENTIAL WAMBAUGH, November 30, 2009

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Ever since Joseph Wambaugh, a former LAPD detective sergeant, burst on the scene well over 30 years ago with a startling thriller, The New Centurions, this author has been keeping readers engrossed and entertained, which is putting it mildly. With Wambaugh's background his stories have an unparalleled gritty realism fueled by shotgun dialogue - he knows cop-speak, which fires every page. His characters are sharply etched making us either shiver or laugh.

Apparently, there's a saying in Hollywood that a full moon brings out the beast not the best in those who make that city their home. It's surely true in HOLLYWOOD MOON as we're introduced to some of the most off-the-wall loonies imaginable. Unimaginable, yes, but in Wambaugh's hand very real.

Trying to look after the city's good and dreadful are some of the most realistically drawn officers in print. There's Dana Vaughn, a super savvy, self-assured woman officer known for having "the smartest mouth at Hollywood Station." She's partnered with Hollywood Nate, a wannabe movie star who's yet to be discovered. Nate doesn't much care for Dana because "she snarked him about his vanity."

There's also another team known as Flotsam and Jetsam, surfer cops. What a pair! "Flotsam wore his two-inch hair gelled up in front like a baby cocka-too, and Jetsam's was semispiked, both coifs streaked with highlights not provided by sun."

Out in the city there's Jakob Kessler, a pudgy, stoop shouldered frightening German who has dispatched runners throughout the city to steal credit cards. He's making piles of money. Thing is he's not German, he's not stoop shouldered and he's not Jakob Kessler. He's Dewey Gleason, an expert at disguise. One thing he's not expert at is handling his non-stop smoking wife, Eunice, who orders him around like a trained poodle.

There's also young Marcus, a handsome , curly haired young fellow who's about to explode with rage. Stuck in a dead-end job, he detests his mother and all other females.

Wambaugh carries readers on a dangerous path filled with twists, turns, up hill, down hill, and around Hollywood as officers respond to calls and criminals ply their trades. The chases are merry, mordant and many in this third installment of Wambaugh's Hollywood series. Movies are never this good.

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "FULL MOON BRINGS OUT CRIMINAL CRAZIES... HOLLYWOOD COPS ARE ALWAYS CRAZY!", November 27, 2009

By	Rick Shaq Goldstein "Rick Shaq Goldstein" (Danville, Ca, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

As the story begins the reader is re-introduced to numerous characters from earlier Wambaugh novels such as cops "Hollywood Nate"... surfer dude/cops "Flotsam and Jetsam"... and the late great "Oracle" who was a legend in his own time... and who is still revered by current cops... who superstitiously touch his framed photo as they leave the precinct to go out on duty. The "Oracle" in days gone by had termed a full moon... a "HOLLYWOOD MOON"... the night when the craziest arrests would be made. In loving memory... there is normally a free extra large pizza with the works presented to the team that comes in with the craziest arrest on a "HOLLYWOOD-MOON-NIGHT". It's normally a closely competed contest... since as they say in the Hollywood precinct... HEY! THIS IS FREAKIN HOLLYWOOD!

As the reader is bedazzled with the normal daily chit-chat and insanity that the cops take as common sense and logic... simultaneously multiple criminal characters are developed and the author deftly shifts the characters and the cops from foreground to background... and then with a literary synergy they all... good guys and bad guys... merge and overlap like rivers heading to the sea. There is Ruben Malcolm Rojas (aka Clark) a nineteen-year-old who lives with his drunken Mother... has eyes on a fourteen-year-old girl... gets upset and boils when his Mother pets his hair... and one of the ways he "relieves" himself is to attempt rapes on older women. He has a job in a store where he has become handy with a box cutter as he unpacks boxes all day. Then we have Dewey Gleason (aka Jakob Kessler aka Ambrose Willis aka Bernie Graham) who runs multiple crews of lowlifes heavily populated by "tweakers" and minorities... that specialize in stealing mail... forging checks... counterfeiting checks... phony real estate deals... and bogus ordering of products through multiple channels. Dewey's (aka see all aliases above) wife of nine-years Eunice (aka Ethel ) who believes she is the brains behind the operation (Dewey thinks he is) as she operates multiple computers... all for illegal criminal gain out of their apartment... while simultaneously smoking four packs of cigarettes a day. Since Eunice alone knows where their $500,000.00 - $1,000,000.00+ illicitly gained retirement nest egg is hidden... it adds another level of intrigue as their hate for each other grows... and Dewey dreams of killing her... but he is stuck with the enigma of how to find "his" money before he "offs" her.

If you're a Wambaugh fan you will be fed your usual non-stop diet of politically incorrect slurs as well as an absolutely hilarious conversation between Flotsam and Jetsam regarding Jetsam's surf date with a "hot" IHOP waitress that went awry... when it turns out every part of her body was artificially enhanced. Without giving this classic scene away... I'll just share with you Jetsam's summary to his partner: "MAYBE YOU JUST SHOULDN'T TRUST SOMEONE WHO WEARS RINGS ON HER INDEX FINGERS."

In the end... Wambaugh is able to compellingly bring all these diverse characters together in an entertaining crescendo... but HEY!... THIS IS FREAKIN HOLLYWOOD!