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Hollywood Crows: A Novel | 
| Author: Joseph Wambaugh
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $26.99
Buy New: $12.60
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Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 2367
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0316025283
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316025287
ASIN: 0316025283
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
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Product Description
When LAPD cops Hollywood Nate and Bix Rumstead find themselves caught up with bombshell Margot Aziz, they think they're just having some fun. But in Hollywood, nothing is ever what it seems. To them, Margot is a harmless socialite, stuck in the middle of an ugly divorce from the nefarious nightclub-owner Ali Aziz. What Nate and Bix don't know is that Margot's no helpless victim: the femme fatale is setting them both up. But Ms. Aziz isn't the only one with a deadly plan.
In HOLLYWOOD CROWS, Wambaugh returns once again to the beat he knows best, taking readers on a tightly plotted and darkly funny ride-along through Los Angeles with a cast of flawed cops and eccentric lowlifes they won't soon forget.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 My favorite May 16, 2008
I started reading JW novels in college 25 years ago. I have read them all. After a long pause he put out Hollywood Station--a fun little read but not his best. I was expecting a similar quality in the new one, Hollywood Crows. But I was surprised to find out I could not put it down. I'd have to say...impulsively perhaps...that this is my favorite book of his. I'm just stunned to read the reviews calling this boring. I will admit that I know Hollywood from many visits and that adds to the experience for me. But whatever it is, I just love this novel.
To the author: I hope you keep on cranking out more stories in this Hollywood series Joe; I suspect there's many more like me that want the setting to stay there for a while...it makes for great stories...as you well know! Great job.
HOLLYWOOD CROWS May 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I LOVE ALL OF JOSEPH WAMBAUGH BOOKS. HOLLYWOOD CROWS IS CONTINUED FROM HOLLYWOOD STATION. JOSEPH WAMBAUGH WAS A LOS ANGELES COP AND WRITES ABOUT THE HOLLYWOOD POLICE DEPT AND ALL OF THE STRANGE PEOPLE WHO WERE ON HIS BEAT, GOOD AND BAD.
Excellent! May 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having been a longstanding admirer of this author, I did not hesitate to purchase this latest penmanship that was on offer.
I was not disappointed: truly magnificent prose, be it at times difficult for me to understand as I am not a native American speaker. Excellent plot, surprising twists as only once could I predict the outcome of a certain development accurately.
If you want to read what I believe is a true account of what policework is really like in one of the most famous places in the world, don't hesitate a minute and purchase this masterpiece!
Excellent police stories; not a police procedural May 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Joseph Wambaugh has grown into, if not invented, a unique genre: the police story as opposed to the police procedural. In "Hollywood Crows", the emphasis in on the characters and incidents in their lives as opposed to the resolution of specific criminal acts. The technique is not in and of itself new: you can see the seeds of it in the classic movie "Naked City". Wambaugh's distinction is the skill with he tells these stories.
Sequel to his "Hollywood Station", "Hollywood Crows" follows many of the same characters. Hollywood Nate Weiss, a 36 year old cop who still has dreams of becoming a big-time movie actor; Ronnie Sinclair, survivor of two failed marriages; Flotsam and Jetsam, for whom police work is a diversion from their real life as Malibu surfers; the officious Sergeant "Chickenlips" Treakle; Compassionate Charlie, the crude, insensitive detective; Cat Song, the Korean woman police officer and so on. Quite a collection, all of whom - like all of us - are dysfunctional in some way, small or large. Of course, police can't exist without criminals or potential criminals and there's no shortage of those here: Margot and Ali Azizz, the battling soon-to-be divorcees who want misfortune to befall the other; Leonard, the surprisingly sympathetic crackhead who is always looking for an easy and illegal score.
Overall, the plot is thin, but it makes no difference. The focus here is on the insanity of being a Los Angeles cop, not on resolving some crime or other. The story is episodic reflecting the foibles of each of the characters. Hollywood Nate, for instance, when he is not sitting at the Farmer's Market eavesdropping on a group of very old and unemployed movie directors and writers, is always hunting for his big breakthrough part in the movies or seeking new women. He notices the gorgeous Margot Azizz, stops her for a traffic violation and thinks he has wangled an invitation from her. In fact, the beautiful Margot has plans for Nate Weiss.
Ronnie Sinclair is a woman police officer just trying to make it through life. She has a two year old son and two failed marriages in her past when she is appointed to the Community Relations Offices (the Crows in the title), that becomes involved in quality of life issues such as excessive noise in order to free other officers to fight "real" crime. The CRO is also painted in unflattering terms as part of the response to the suffocating consent decree imposed on the LAPD in the wake of the Rodney King incident and Ramparts Division evidence planting scandal. It is clear that the police of Wambaugh's novel don't appreciate this goody two-shoes. They'd rather do things the old-fashioned way and put people away in jail no matter what.
The book moves in fits and starts with often hilarious interludes. Some of the vignettes are out-loud laughing funny, particularly the scenes around Grauman's Chinese Theatre where hustlers dress up as popular movie characters such as Dearth Vader.
There is a big crime afoot and Wambaugh reveals it gradually. A two-bit crack addict, Leonard Stilwell, hovers and flits about the edges of the big crimes - and Stilwell is a sympathetic, if repulsive, character.
This is not a book for people looking for the excitement of a true police procedural where the detecive ploddingly sorts through the false leads to find his way to the perpetrator. This is a collection of stories about police in general and specific police officers. Some are gut busting funny - and a few are tragic. All are fascinating as Wambaugh shows us his skill as a storyteller. A fine and satisfying read.
Jerry
 Wambaugh light May 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Hollywood Crows is worth reading, but it's Wambaugh light--a far distance from his top novels and top true crime books. The story is more anecdotal than plot-driven. There is a plot, but it's more of a thread connecting the work of an ensemble cast of Hollywood cops. We are drawn to the book by their personal stories, their jokes, anecdotes, ways and lore. There is a crime, actually a set of crimes, at the core, but the core is thin and the book survives by its atmospherics and glimpses into the way of life of a set of disparate individuals. Wambaugh is better equipped to write such a book than anyone and Hollywood Crows has its moments, but it will be disappointing to a reader of great books like The Choirboys and The Onion Field.
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