by Joseph Wambaugh
(Corvus, £16.99)
It's no accident that Flotsam and Jetsam, the righteous pair of surfer dudes, open the fourth instalment of Wambaugh's Hollywood series. The blond kahunas are by far the most colourful characters in a vast cast of larger-than-life cops. Alas, fate has something horrid in store for Jetsam. In the meantime it's business as usual for the boys and girls in blue — that is, dealing with all manner of Looney Tunes. These include a rampaging man-mountain in a house full of Addams Family wannabes and the ever-elusive Wedgie Bandit.
The main plot involves the bent and British owner of an art gallery — the excuse for a never-ending stream of inventive homophobic epithets — and the butler of a well-heeled widow who gets the hots for Hollywood Nate, the cop who dreams of movie stardom. When a couple of tweakers witness the theft of the geriatric cougar's paintings the stage is set for double-crossings galore and a very messy ending. If this time around the astonishing anecdotes are not embedded in the narrative as skilfully as before, Wambaugh's legion of fans will not complain. There's no one better at showing the commitment and bravery of LA's finest.
