'Hollywood Crows' by Jospeh Wambaugh - Book Review

In Hollywood Crows a beautiful woman is frightened of her husband. Her plight (and looks) capture the attention of two LAPD Community Relations Officers or "crows." Wambaugh's novel is as much about the work of these crows as it is about the beautiful woman. Also featured are a junkie criminal and the woman's ex-husband, the owner of a "classy" strip joint. Hollywood Crows is a workable mystery novel, but it will really appeal to those who want an insider's view of the LAPD.

Hollywood Crows is the latest crime novel from Joseph Wambaugh, focusing again on the police officers of Hollywood Station in the LAPD, and particularly the role of the "crows," or Community Relations Officers. Wambaugh is a former detective sergeant with the LAPD, and his experience with his subject matter is evident. The plot of Hollywood Crows is secondary to Wambaugh. What he really writes about is the LAPD: the struggles faced by the officers, the grim reality of LA's seedy underbelly as witnessed by the cops charged with cleaning it up and pushing it out of view.

Wambaugh's cops repeatedly chafe under the burden of federal oversight enacted in the wake of scandals like the Rodney King beating. Wambaugh's perspective echoes that of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men: "You can't handle the truth" that unpleasant tactics are necessary to keep people safe. And your regulations of police brutality and racial profiling are unhelpful meddling.

At one point, one of Wambaugh's cops urges another to make an aggressive move, asking "What would you have done six years ago, before a federal judge and a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats emasculated us?" The answer, of course, is bust down the door, and (not surprisingly, given Wambaugh's perspective) the cops discover their instincts were right and a crime had taken place.

As a mystery novel, Hollywood Crows holds up just fine, but it's really most interesting as an insider’s take on the cops who work the city.