Harbor Nocturne

Starred review from February 6, 2012
MWA Grand Master Wambaugh ventures into L.A.’s San Pedro district in his highly entertaining fifth novel to feature his Hollywood Station crew (after 2010’s Hollywood Hills). Surfer cops “Flotsam and Jetsam” get their first “intelligence-gathering mission” to ferret out the “money guys” behind a ring of erotic massage parlors, whose human trafficking operation may have resulted in the deaths of 13 Asian immigrants smuggled in a container at San Pedro’s shipping yards. Jetsam’s amputated foot is their entry to a wealthy Russian with an infatuation with amputees. Meanwhile, a Romeo and Juliet love burgeons between Dinko Babich, a Croatian longshoreman, and Lita Medina Flores, a Mexican dancer whose roommate’s sister was among the container’s victims. Razor-edged dialogue punctuates the vignette-filled plot. Realistic criminals are well matched by Wambaugh’s equally authentic police, including “Hollywood Nate” Weiss and a lazy cop nicknamed Unicorn, in this darkly comic, gritty look at life on the streets.

September 15, 2012

This installment in Wambaugh's "Hollywood Station" series portrays the horrors of human trafficking and the smuggling across U.S. borders of young women from around the globe for exploitation in the sex industry. Croat longshoreman Dinko Babich's world turns upside down when he shelters Lita Medina, a Mexican illegal who dances topless in a local dive. Lita witnesses another dancer getting into their employer's car the day before the girl's corpse is found in a dumpster, making Lita a marked woman. The foreign-born or first-generation Americans whose parents came to America to plant roots and raise families collide with those here for a quick--illegal--buck and quicker exit when the law approaches. There also are numerous asides about the routine madness encountered daily by big-city police. Wambaugh is not a twist-and-turns writer; his character-driven plots are easy to follow, making them perfect audio fodder. VERDICT Narrator R.C. Bray does an outstanding job of voicing the numerous foreign accents, jumping with skill and ease between men and women and among multiple nationalities. Overall, a perfect mix of material and narrator--grab it! ["The legendary Wambaugh's newest is chock-full of his trademark cop talk and offbeat side vignettes. His ability to weave a complex story together out of seemingly disparate elements lightens up some of the grittiness of big city police work," read the review of the Mysterious Pr: Grove/Atlantic hc, LJ 2/1/12--Ed.]--Mike Rogers, Library Journal

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