The Secrets of Harry Bright

By Joseph Wambaugh

Sidney Blackpool is a homicide detective in Los Angeles. His son drowned while surfing and, even though it has been quite some time since that happened, Blackpool is not coping too well with his loss. He is guilt-ridden because of harsh words exchanged with his dillitent and drug-using son shortly before the teenager died. So when the opportunity arises for Sidney to give up police work and take a job as head of security for a cushy salary at private business, Sidney is raring to go. All he has to do is look into the death of the son of the man who owns the business.
The man is convinced that his son, who died near Palm Springs, was killed by kidnappers, but the Palm Springs police have not been able to close the investigation and the case is so far unsolved.
Sidney and his partner head to Palm Springs, all expenses paid, to follow up on the investigation and also to play a little golf. But what Sidney finds out reveals more about himself than he would probably like to know and even though he solves the riddle of the dead boy's death, it doesn't quite pan out the way he and the boy's father had imagined.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. It has lots of intriguing secrets to be solved, colorful and amusing characters, quite a bit of humor and a compelling and engaging mystery to be solved.

Hollywood Crows

By Joseph Wambaugh

Things have changed in policing since Wambaugh first began writing his gritty cop dramas decades ago. He explores these changes in this story about the Hollywood Crows. Crow is short for Community Relations Officers. These cops serve as liaisons with the Hollywood community and generally handle quality-of-life types of complaints, like complaints about squatters and cars parked in other people's parking spaces; easy stuff that doesn't generally entail a lot of risk.
Filled with Wambaugh's usual cast of oddball characters, this story is a fun look at the behind scenes lives of these so-called Crows. Despite their cushy jobs, some of these Crows get tangled up in a nasty custody dispute. Strip club owner Aziz and his gorgeous and unscrupulous wife Margot are divorcing. Each one is convinced that the other is determined to take their young son away and disappear with him. They are going to do whatever it takes to stop the other, even if it means someone has to die. Margot, beautiful and cunning, set sights on one of the more vulnerable Crows in her plot to gain permanent custody of her child and Aziz uses his criminal contacts to go after Margot.

Wambaugh's novels are always a great look at the behind scenes world of cops and this story is no exception. The Crows are characters and the problems they deal with, while not earth-shaking, are still fun and interesting. The child custody plot was thrilling and exciting and also very sad to watch these two people at war over their young son. I really enjoyed this story. Wambaugh has done his usual stellar job with the Hollywood Crows.

For another review of this book see BookReporter.com.