I'ts been a very long time since I've read Wambaugh, but I have very fond memories of "The New Centurions" and "The Onion Field". This book is not in their league. I will say it is certainly a page turner, and that Wambaugh fills "Hollywood Station" with entertaining and probably true anecdotes of life on the streets of Hollywood, but when it comes to the main plot involving Russians, Armenians, a couple of robberies and a couple of meth heads; the novel really falls apart. Not to say the characters and situations aren't interesting, they are. It's just that every one of the Eastern Europeans speaks like Boris Badanov from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. Wambaughs's dialogue is laughably bad, though arguably meant to be laughable I suppose. And then there are the surfer dudes with nicknames of "Floatsam and Jetsam". I can't even think of a cultural icon shallow enough to compare them to. Beavis and Butthead perhaps.

It does not work. Wambaugh's reputation as a writer is someone who creates gritty true to life characters. Humor abounds amongst the ugly goings on in his cops lives (except for maybe the non-fiction Onion Field), but the humor here never strikes a chord of truth. Some of the other characters, the older ones that feel alien to the younger generation of cops in particular, are much more realistic than the the characters that I described earlier. It is as if Wambaugh himself feels way outside the current culture of the LAPD as opposed to when he wrote about it 35 years ago as either a cop or a recently retired cop turned writer.

Maybe that is why his pen has quieted down in recent years, perhaps even he realizes the problem. Whatever the reason, I won't argue the fact that this is an entertaining page turner; but it is far from realistic. A majority of the dialogue and characterizations are surprisingly sophmoric.

Funny, with police officers you come to care about.

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Hilarious, vintage Wambaugh! A must read for all of his loyal readers!
I loved it!

For a cop, a night on the job means killing time and trying not to get killed. If you're a cop in Hollywood Division, it also means dealing with the most overwrought, desperate, and deluded criminals anywhere. When you're patrolling Sunset and Hoollywood Boulevards, neither a good reputation nor the lessons of scaldals past will help you keep your cool, your sanity, or your life when things heat up.

Great to have Wambaugh back.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Wambaugh, awarded the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in 2004, returns to the crazed world of the LAPD for the first time since his 1983 novel, The Delta Star. It is a triumphant return. Not only does Wambaugh give readers his usual feast of black humor, as well as deliver another cast of edgy LAPD cops and wacko denizens of the street, but he also portrays how life for L.A. cops has changed in the last 20 years. The novel is both a celebration of street cops and an elegy for the old LAPD, now hobbled by post-Rodney King federal receivership, Draconian PC codes, oversight armies, and severe manpower and equipment shortages (Michael Connelly covers some of this same ground). The setting, Hollywood Station, also serves as a symbol for the collision of cops and criminals. For example, the stars on the Walk of Fame in front of Graumann's Chinese Theater are overrun by costumed cartoon characters who are actually addicts and whores; the stars in front of Hollywood Station are modeled after the stars on the Walk of Fame, but these stars contain the names of seven officers from Hollywood Station, all killed in the line of duty. The plot careens between cops and criminals, as seemingly random acts of desperation by a group of meth burnouts tie into a Russian criminal mastermind's scheme. High-voltage suspense drives the tale, and as always, Wambaugh's characters, language, and war stories exude authenticity. Terrific. Connie Fletcher
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Really good stuff....

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