Customer Reviews

The Secrets of Harry Bright

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

Wambaugh has the ability to create books that are humourous and worth reading if you need a dose of black comedy and he does it again in this novel. Although I must admit that the majority of the book is cookie-cutter stuff as the author goes over the same ground as in a number of his previous books with stories of the police officers.

The end of the book is worth the price of the book though and is thought-provoking as we find out the Secret of Harry Bright.....

I have not read much fiction in my lifetime. I'm just learning how, these days. Joseph Wambaugh is giving me an appreciation of reading fiction for pure joy. I enjoyed this book. Laughed out loud many times too. The ending left me deeply moved. If you like who-dunnits, you will enjoy this one. What prompted me to read something of Wambaugh's was "Echoes In The Darkness," which I read many years ago. I thought it was a good read also. I have some personal interest and knowledge of that book's subject.

2 big city California detectives are hired by a wealthy resident of Palm Springs to find out who kidnapped and murdered his son. The local cops have been unable to get anywhere. The case is a great vehicle for Wambaugh to bring to bore his full repetoire of cop stories, wry asides and humorous anectdoes, zany goings on in the Palm Spring upper crust set - and he does so, in spades. Funny and haunting. One of Wambaughs better ones - although I prefer Golden Orange.

This isn't quite up to classics like THE NEW CENTAURIANS, THE BLUE KNIGHT, or THE CHOIRBOYS, but I do consider it as one of his best lesser known books. The introductions to each of the characters are often hilarous as we see various "clowns" hired into the Mineral Springs PD by the title character. However, one might become a bit impatient since you need to get well into the book before you have a true sense of where the story is going. Buried under the many anecdotal type scenes, but ultimately rising into prominance is the common bond linkng the title character, the main investigative officer, and the millionaire who hires the latter, and it's this theme that gives the entire book meaning and rewards the patient reader.

Wambaugh formula--middle-aged cops who eat & drink too much, who've seen too much & lost too much, and are so burned out that they're looking for another life, if they're lucky enough to reach retirement. And a mystery to be solved, from the thinnest of clues, with a bent ending & no resolution. And all wrapped in stories cops tell each other--with great dialogue, well developed male characters, and one-dimensional females. Ah, the job, the job! Starting each of the early chapters off with point-of-view that shifts with each character was irksome to me, but, otherwise, a good read, overlong for its novella content. Here's its irony: Wambaugh is trapped in the world that his characters are trying to escape, even as he writes about it. Experience makes cynics of us all, and cops get cynical fast, including those who write about what they learned.

I've read all of Wambaugh's books and impatiently wait for each new one. "The Secrets Of Harry Bright" is probably the least known of his books, but it's the one that keeps haunting me. The "secrets" that are finally revealed in a stunning conclusion are indeed deeply moving and, years later, still gnaw at me.

I've read ALL of Wambaugh's books, and this is one of his best works. The characters are well developed, they are so real and vivid. As usual, he includes just the right fine character details, you end up knowing the players so well that you feel like you've known them all your life. And I am sure there is nobody (that did't cheat and read the end first) that could have ever guessed how this story plays out.