The son of a police officer, Wambaugh was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He joined the U.S. Marines at age 17 (an element he works into several of his novels) and married at 18. Wambaugh received an Associate degree from Chaffey College and joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1960. He served 14 years, rising through the ranks from patrolman to detective sergeant. He also attended California State University, Los Angeles, where he earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. Wambaugh's perspective on police work led to his first novel, The New Centurions, which was published early in 1971 to critical acclaim and popular success. The success of the early books happened while Wambaugh was still working in the detective division. He reportedly remarked, "I would have guys in handcuffs asking me for autographs." Soon turning to writing full-time, Wambaugh was prolific and popular starting in the 1970s. He mixed writing novels (The Blue Knight, The Choirboys, The Black Marble) with nonfiction accounts of crime and detection, a.k.a. "true crime": The Onion Field. Later books included The Glitter Dome (a TV-movie adaptation starred James Garner and John Lithgow), The Delta Star, and Lines and Shadows. In contrast to conventionally heroic fictional policemen, Wambaugh brought a gritty texture to his flawed police characters. Beginning with The Choirboys, Wambaugh changed his approach and began to use dark humor and outrageous incidents to emphasize the psychological peril inherent in modern urban police work. Many characters are referenced by often unflattering nicknames rather than given names, while other characters are given whimsical names to paint an immediate word portrait for the reader. Wambaugh became sharply critical of the command structure of the LAPD and individuals within it, and later, of the city government as well. The character of "Deputy Chief Digby Bates" in The Black Marble, for example, is likely a thinly-veiled lampoon of Chief Daryl Gate
My Opinion: Since I first read a Wambaugh book many years ago, I have credited him with having the best, funniest and in some ways darkest dialogue of any crime writer. Recently I picked up Hollywood Station for the second time and fell in love with his writing all over again. It is written in small stories of action with a variety of characters and is just plain fun reading. Some incidents depict the horrible things that people do to one another but each of these awful events are saved by the humanity of the police men or women who deal with the horror. I strongly recommend his work.
Bibliography:
The New Centurions (1971, novel)
The Blue Knight (1972, novel)
The Onion Field (1973, nonfiction)
The Choirboys (1975, novel)
The Black Marble (1978, novel)
The Glitter Dome (1981, novel)
The Delta Star (1983, novel)
Lines and Shadows (1984, nonfiction)
The Secrets of Harry Bright (1985, novel)
Echoes in the Darkness (1987, nonfiction)
The Blooding: The True Story of the Narborough Village Murders (1989, nonfiction)
The Golden Orange (1990, novel)
Fugitive Nights: Danger in the Desert (1992, novel)[6]
Finnegan's Week (1993, novel) X
Floaters (1996, novel)
Fire Lover: A True Story (2002, nonfiction)
Hollywood Station (2006, novel) X X
Hollywood Crows (2008, novel) X X
Hollywood Moon (2009, novel) X
Hollywood Hills (2010, novel) X
Harbor Nocturne (2012, novel) X
If you want to know more about him go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wambaugh