The Secrets of Harry Bright [Hardcover]

Joseph Wambaugh (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 345 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (September 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688059589
• ISBN-13: 978-0688059583
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,210,881 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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, laugh-out loud, read., August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Secrets of Harry Bright (Mass Market Paperback)

Wambaugh again combines a real mystery plot with some truly humorous anecdotes pulled right from real-life police work. Having been familiar with this line of work, and the locale in which this book is set, I found it a good read - and one that made me laugh out loud at times. Maybe we all have our "Secret..." as does Harry Bright.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Of Waumbaugh's Best, May 28, 2002

By 

Joseph J. Hall "Lean Meister" (Irvine, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secrets of Harry Bright (Mass Market Paperback)

I first read this about this book in a feature article in Los Angles Magazine in 1984. I later read this book while spending the weekend at the Marriott Rancho Las Plamas Resort in Rancho, Mirage, Ca. near where this book takes place.

The book focuses on a San Diego Police Officer who looses his son in the PSA jet crash in San Diego and escapes to a desrt town to escape San Diego and to still be near his ex wife who lives in Rancho Mirage in an exclusive Country Club.

The Main Character of this novel "Black Sid" gets an all expense paid vaction to Palm Springs to investigate a murder of a Millionares son. Black Sid like Harry Bright and the millionare all have lost their son.

The plot is very captivating and well worth the reading. Just be careful, it may inspire you enough to go to the Coachella Valley area and fall in love with the desert and buy a home in Rancho Mirage like I did!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, April 14, 2011

By 

Samuel B. Petite "Sam Petite" (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secrets of Harry Bright (Paperback)

Wambaugh is one of my favorite authors and I have read many of his books.

This was my favorite.

Great imagery of the Desert and generally good character development.

My only complaint about the book was the all too familiar shallow bar scene that features several cops acting like idiots.

The most prominent character is a detective named Sidney. His investigative technique seemed very clever and realistic.

The conclusion of the book was not forshadowed and hits you like a locomotive.

The story paints a very raw reality of life and the human spirit that keeps you thinking and even having dreams long after you finish.

In some ways the story is a great tragedy, but it is also very touching to see the love and self sacrifice characters in the book show to a very wounded soul.