Harbor Nocturne

After initially thinking this was not in the Hollywood Station series, I was thrilled to realize that it was a continuation of the stories of the men and women I grew to love in Wambaugh's earlier novels. It was particularly nice to see what had happened to the surfer cops after the accident in the last book. I love all of these characters and was grateful for another chance to visit their world.

I felt that this reader did a great job, but I hate it when they change readers mid series.

Joseph Wambaugh's story telling grabs you from the start and doses not let you go. He has a way of making his characters real and his fiction stories so real you would swear they were right out of the hidden Los Angles Hollywood never shows you.

R.C. brought depth and texture to all of the characters - this made the story even more real - I actually had deep feelings for the main characters thanks to R.C.

When Dinko's mother finally accepted Lita with all of her baggage and short comings and Lita finally learned to trust someone and most of all how Dinko grew up and became the man his father would have been proud to say was his son.

If R.C.Bray is reading it, I'll buy the print version gladly.

He does a terrible job on Flotsum and Jetsum's voices. Listeners familiar with previous audio books about Hollywood Division will be disappointed. I am. The opening is rocky and uncertain. Hollywood Nate sounds overdone and smarmy like a bad toothpaste commercial announcer.

I really enjoy all of Wambaugh's novels following the cast of characters from Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles Police department. They are wacky, fun loving sometimes poignant but always effective keepers of the peace. You can't go wrong with this selection if you like a little humor with your drama.

His stories are all about Hollywood and vicinity and they are real.. You can go there and see the people he is writing about.. Since the LA Police have changed since the riots and
Rodney King, so have his characters. I have been reading his books since theri beginning
and I continue to await his next book.

Over the years, I have read all of Joseph Wambaugh's books and enjoyed everyone. This book is no exception. Well-developed, familiar characters, lots of cop humor and Hollywood wierdness, and a fast paced story make this book a great read.

The way Wambaugh creates stories within stories, I never wanted to turn it off. It leaves me wanting more and counting down the days for a new one!

This is another in the Hollywood Station series, which I find heart-warming and funny, especially the police dark humor. In this one, which is more of a love story than usual, Dinko, doing a friend a favor, takes Lita Medina to her home from a Hollywood nightclub where she is working. He finds that Lita, a young Mexican girl, is one of the young women tricked into coming to the U.S. for a new life but instead finds herself enslaved to a pimp, entrapped because he paid her fee to the “coyote” for bringing her out of Mexico, and because her English isn’t great, and she knows no one there. In order to “pay off this debt” she has to work as a prostitute for her “handler.” The trouble begins when a Korean mob boss loses 13 illegal aliens who were being smuggled into the U.S. in a shipping container. The Korean realizes he has lost a large investment and looks for someone to blame. In the meantime, Daisy, who is a sister to one of the refugees coming over, is so horrified by all of those people dying in the container, that she leaves and tells her roommates that she is going to the police. Lita is one of those roommates. When Lita finds out that Daisy is dead, she flees to the only person she has met in America not part of this mob group-Dinko. He takes her in, and they fall in love. Dinko is attempting to alleviate the danger Lita is in by knowing that Daisy was going to the police. In the meantime, the comic relief is provided by the surfer dudes. One of them, who lost a foot in the previous book but retained his place in the police force because his artificial foot works so well that people mostly don’t know he has it, are picked by a vice cop supervisor to run a sting on a Russian who has a strange fixation on people with artificial limbs. The idea of the surfer dudes working under cover is fairly hysterical, and Wambaugh makes us laugh out loud with this story. Eventually the two stories connect as relating to the smuggled refugees killed in the shipping container. A very good edition to the series.

The guys and gals of Hollywood Division are back and then some! Like the others in this series, Harbor Nocturne does not disappoint. Wambaugh's crazy characters abound as usual, but this installment has a good strong storyline, as well. Plenty of humor, action, tragedy, and even love. Well worth your time, but just be careful where you're listening, people might wonder what your constantly changing facial expressions are all about!

I've always loved the grit, humor and realism of the Hollywood Station stories by Joseph Wambaugh. But of the several audiobooks I've listened to of Wambaugh's work, narrator R.C. Bray definitely got it.

How true to human emotions it is; especially the use of humor. Humor helps aid in everything from sadness to loneliness to pure elation (obviously!). And Joseph Wambaugh is a natural master at it. The politically incorrect banter between the cops is incredibly refreshing. Nice to see that people aren't afraid to 'cross the lines' because they know that it's all in good fun and embracing our differences as well as our respective stereotypes - can be exhilaratingly hilarious and freeing.

His tongue-in-cheek take definitely created a different vision of the Hollywood Station books for me. It's hard to bring a character to life more than Joseph Wambaugh, but R.C. Bray definitely held his own - he fleshed them out nicely. The accents were great too!!!

This is one of my things that borders on a pet peeve but it'd be great if there was some consistency in the narrator for the 'Station' books. Not knocking the others by any means, but if I had my say I'd nominate R.C. Bray!

Yes - but having a full time job, and a family... kinda put the kaibash on that! HA!

A truly great listen - enjoy!!!