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    Hollywood Station
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    Hollywood Station
    Unavailable
    Hollywood Station
    Audiobook11 hours

    Hollywood Station

    Written by Joseph Wambaugh

    Narrated by Adam Grupper

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Joseph Wambaugh invented the modern police procedural thriller. Now in his long-awaited return to the LAPD, he deploys his bone-deep understanding of cops' lives--and a lethal sense of humor--in a stunning new novel.

    For a cop, a night on the job means killing time and trying not to get killed. If you're in Hollywood Division, it also means dealing with some of the most desperate criminals anywhere. Now the violent robbery of a Hollywood jewelry store quickly connects to a Russian nightclub and an undercover operation gone wrong, and the sergeant they call the Oracle and his squad of quirky cops have to make sense of it all. From an officer who dreams of stardom, to a single mother packing a breast pump, to partners who'd rather be surfing, they'll take you on a raucous ride through a gritty city where no one is safe. Especially not the cops.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateNov 28, 2006
    ISBN9781594838033
    Unavailable
    Hollywood Station
    Author

    Joseph Wambaugh

    The son of a policeman, Joseph Wambaugh (b. 1937) began his writing career while a member of the Los Angeles Police Department. He joined the LAPD in 1960 after three years in the Marine Corps, and rose to the rank of detective sergeant before retiring in 1974. His first novel, The New Centurions (1971), was a quick success, drawing praise for its realistic action and intelligent characterization, and was adapted into a feature film starring George C. Scott. He followed it up with The Blue Knight (1972), which was adapted into a mini-series starring William Holden and Lee Remick. Since then Wambaugh has continued writing about the LAPD. He has been credited with a realistic portrayal of police officers, showing them not as superheroes but as men struggling with a difficult job, a depiction taken mainstream by television’s Police Story, which Wambaugh helped create in the mid-1970s. In addition to novels, Wambaugh has written nonfiction, winning a special Edgar Award for 1974’s The Onion Field, an account of the longest criminal trial in California history. His most recent work is the novel Hollywood Moon (2010).

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    Reviews for Hollywood Station

    3.5/5

    247 ratings18 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Came hightly recommended, so perhaps my expectations were set too high, but this is a standard LA police procedural, didn't feel amazingly funny or ground breaking to me. Had standard cop characters, bit more gritty situations and a kind of ghoulish cop humor. Didn't love it, but read it on the airplane and it served it's purpose.
    • 2/5
      HOLLYWOOD STATION is a novel following a multitude of officers and detectives from the Hollywood Division of the LAPD. The one plot line that extends the course of most of the book involves a jewelry theft that results from Crystal Meth addicts fishing mail out of public mailboxes and selling it to a Eastern European couple. There are also a plethora of small sub-story lines throughout the course of the novel. Some of the main players in this book include two police officers/surfer "dudes" referred to as Flotsam and Jetsam, veteran officer Fausto Gamboa, a new mother officer Budgie Polk, Hollywood Nate - the officer obsessed with being a movie star, Wesley Drubb - the son of a wealthy family who wanted the thrills of being a police officer, and the "Oracle" - the sergeant of Hollywood Division.Wambaugh seems to have a gift with creating his characters. The meth addict Farley was absolutely reprehensible. I truly disliked him. And Fausto I adored despite his curmudgeon exterior. Flotsam and Jetsam were hilarious, but at the same time they confused me. They were obviously exceptionally intelligent young men, so I couldn't figure out why they would act so incredibly goofy. So, there are multiple layers to these characters, a lot of dimension, and I connected with them. But what Wambaugh was thinking with the plot of this novel is beyond me. He obviously doesn't ascribe to Aristotle's belief that all the events need to be connected to the plot. The plot almost felt like an episode of Cops on television. I kept asking myself, "WHERE's the plot?" It took until disc five to figure out that the diamond theft was supposed to be the main focus of the book. There were so many small vignettes and most of those were left hanging. I was especially disappointed in the sub-plot dealing with the small children left alone in an apartment or when Flotsam and Jetsam fled a crime scene outside their district after shooting a treed suspect with a bean bag gun. There was no focus to the plot, and I wonder if Wambaugh didn't try to shove too many different characters into the book, without really focusing on any one. So instead, the plot ended up going off in all different directions following all these different characters in their day-to-day dealings. There were several parts that made me laugh hysterically. When Flotsam and Jetsam busted a guy with a bulge under his shirt. They made him raise his shirt and discovered a phone book the guy had taped to his chest - because someone was out to shoot him, and he didn't want to be unprotected! The one area that Wambaugh probably could have left alone was mixing idioms. There are several characters who are Eastern European and most all of them butchered American idioms at one point or another; however, the results weren't very funny. I listened to this book on audio and Adam Grupper was the reader. I enjoy his readings immensely. He's very talented with voices, and his energy comes through when he reads. He did an outstanding job.Overall, I think there could have been a lot of potential for a great book here, but the end product didn't live up to that potential. I was extremely disappointed.
    • 5/5
      Hollywood Station is almost a collection of short stories containing the same primary characters. It is slices of life in the Hollywood Station of the LAPD, allowing us to experience both the unusual (but usual for Hollywood) incidents and the condition of being "on the job." We get a real sense of the lives of the individual officers as well as life in the station. Realistically portrays the comradery and sometimes sophomoric behavior of the officers at Hollywood Station, as well as compassion and bravery. I thoroughly enjoyed each chapter, finding the whole to be entertaining, realistic and well written.
    • 3/5
      Ordinary cops patrolling the streets. No big mystery, serial killer etc. But it's wellwritten, well researched and good reading. This could be a nice tv-serie.
    • 5/5
      Just love this story at times fun.sometime sad great read
    • 5/5
      I read Hollywood Station for many years, still great! Mikey.
    • 2/5
      Lots of anecdotes showing cop life and ways of thinking take precedence over the loose and predictable plot.
    • 5/5
      Humorous , irreverent and engagingly non PC. Keeps it real!
    • 2/5
      I was unable to finish this book, getting past only a few chapters. I found the writing awful and the characters just… inane stereotypes. The book summary declared the author joseph wambaugh as a new york tiimes bestseller. I dont see how that could be possible given he also wrote this mess.
    • 3/5
      I wasn't that impressed.
    • 1/5
      couldn't get past the first 30 minutes or so -- too crude, too bloody. (Recommended by Peter Strick)
    • 3/5
      Usually I really like Wambaugh. This one was just a little different and, while enjoyable as a fast read, didn't have his usual flair. It seems almost a bunch of vignettes barely strung together and it seemed an unusually dark view of the world (and I don't mind dark at all, usually.)
    • 4/5
      The characters in this series are so distinctive! Flotsam and Jetsam are a hoot. The criminals are often as interesting as the cops. I want to read more in this series.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I love Wambaugh books and hadn't read one in a long while, so I was happy to learn this one is no exception in being immensely enjoyable. I had the audio CD and it was perfect for in-the-car listening, very well narrated by Adam Grupper, who did an excellent job of making each character recognizable by their accent and intonation, bringing the book to life. Wambaugh is, of course, a first rate storyteller and he had a lot of Hollywood stories to tell in this one. His characters, both the bad guys and the good guys and girls, are delightfully, richly drawn and believable. The plot was good, the style better, the whole a wonderfully entertaining read. One of the strengths of Wambaugh as a crime writer is that he seems to have a sincere passion for justice, and his books tend to end on a most satisfying note. For me, it's on to the next Wambaugh read and I can hardly wait!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Joseph Wambaugh's "Hollywood Station" is a police procedural novel about, as the title would suggest, the Hollywood precinct of the L.A. Police Department. The book is composed of a multitude of stories and anecdotes, following various police officers from Hollywood Station, a pair of amateur Russian criminals, and a pair of bumbling meth heads. The main plot concerns the Russians and their trail of robbery and murder, but the plot thread is at times lost within the divers other subplots concerning the Hollywood Station officers.If there is a stand out feature in this novel, it's the characterization. Wambaugh does an amazing job of crafting interesting and vivid characters. I think I most enjoyed reading about the minutiae of police life and the interactions between the officers and the many humorous stories Wambaugh weaves into the narrative. The main plot thread may have been run-of-the-mill, but the characters made up for it.In short, "Hollywood Station" is a solid police procedural with a humorous slant. I would recommend it to any fan of the crime or mystery genre, but I have a feeling even those not accustomed to the genre would still find it enjoyable.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was really great. Different than other crime novels I've read lately, it focused more on the people than on the crime. Wambaugh grabbed me from the start with a fast-paced, no added narration dialogue between two cops forever known only as "Flotsam" and "Jetsam". From there you meet an increasingly colorful cast of characters that includes cops and criminals alike. I thoroughly enjoyed this sojourn to "Hollyweird".

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Maybe if I hadn't read The Choirboys earlier this year, it might not have been as noticeable, but this is very much written in the same style, but without as much of an in-depth detail of the police officers and a more than cursory glance at the criminals that crossed all their paths. Wambaugh has such a comedic bent, and a hilarious way with character names. Of course having been there himself, it shows with the the antics of the police and criminals, and he weaves a story that is completely believable. 
    • 1/5
      This book has a large set of characters with a very loose storyline. It takes a while to figure out how all the "vignettes" connect. Some parts were funny, some characters had a lot of potential, but I never really got into the overall book. Adam Grupper's narration was awesome, especially with all the characters and accents to keep track of. His portrayal of Farley Ramsdale, small-time crook and Meth addict, was hilarious. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I did not find Flotsam and Jetsam very appealing.