May 22
I'm not going to write a full review of Joseph Wambaugh's brilliant novel Hollywood Station as it was published too long ago for that to be useful. But I couldn't finish without writing a few words.
It is quite brilliant, unquestionably a masterpiece: of charactersiation, of story-telling, of mood and location. It captures the modern LAPD - over-stretched, emasculated by federal decree, politically correct and living at the centre of its own small Orwellian drama as the cops are watched and monitored more than the criminals - with a great sense of realism.
It also captures the essence what most of the rest of us who live outside LA would view as the utter craziness of Hollywood and all who serve there.
Book of the year so far.
One book
Hats off to J Kingston Pierce over at the Rap Sheet who has had a great idea for a feature to celebrate his blog's first birthday. The blog asked the following question of a great many authors, critics and bloggers: What one crime, mystery, or thriller novel do you think has been most unjustly overlooked, criminally forgotten, or underappreciated over the years?
The first answers, from the likes of George Pelecanos, Peter James and Megan Abbott, were published yesterday and will be updated all week. I was honoured to have been asked to contribute but then managed to miss the deadline (old journalistic habits die hard). If my entry is not published I'll put it in here later in the week.
A good haul
It's been a decent week for or two for new arrivals. The books are too numerous to list here, and doubtless too numerous to read, but these are the ones that caught my eye immediately.
Alex Scarrow's second novel, Last Light, feels like a timely book, as it outlines an apocalytpic vision of a world turned on its axis by an energy crisis.
I'm also fascinated by Deceived, the true story of Sarah Smith (co-written by Kate Snell) who was fooled into believing she was an IRA target by a local barman friend claiming to be an MI5 agent and then went on the run with him for 10 years.
And although I am somewhat suspicious at present about books claiming religious elements, I quite like the look of GodSword from debut novelist Emerson Cole.
Finding time to read them all is an entirely different matter, but I'll be trying.