Hollywood Moon

By: Joseph Wambaugh

Narrated by: Christian Rummel

Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

There's a saying at Hollywood station that the full moon brings out the beast - or rather than the best - in the precinct's citizens. One moonlit night, LAPD veteran Dana Vaughn and "Hollywood" Nate Weiss, a struggling-actor-turned cop, get a call about a young man who's been attacking women. Meanwhile, two surfer cops known as Flotsam and Jetsam, keep bumping into an odd, suspicious duo - a smooth-talking player in dreads and a crazy-eyed, tattooed biker. No one suspects that all three dubious characters might be involved in something bigger, more high-tech, and much more illegal.

After a dizzying series of twists, turns, and chases, the cops will find they've stumbled upon a complex web of crime where even the criminals can't be sure who's conning whom.

Wambaugh once again masterfully gets inside the hearts and minds of the cops whose jobs have them constantly on the brink of danger. By turns heart-wrenching, exhilarating, and laugh-out-loud funny, Hollywood Moon is his most thrilling and deeply affecting ride yet through the singular streets of L.A.

©2009 Joseph Wambaugh (P)2009 Hachette

Critic Reviews

"Spare and punchy prose fuels descriptions so on target that readers will feel they are riding shotgun, gazing out on Tinseltown's tawdry landscape." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Darkly funny." ( Los Angeles Times)

The Crackling Stories Continue

Wambaugh finds stories along civilization’s fault lines. He asks and answers questions about what’s going through the minds of guards along the wall separating the anti-social from the social. And he presents their frustrations as a perspective that’s missing from the smug truths that flow from 24/7 news cycles or academic ‘studies’ tediously designed to prove the convictions of their authors' confirmation-bias.

There are whacky, weird, and bewildering sparks that crackle from walking the beat between what different communities prize as ‘normal’. And these are Wambaugh’s teaspoon of honey to make his medicine go down.

I like these stories… Like the way they’re told and read by Christian Rummel. And I like the talent of Wambaugh that makes me wonder whether the wall between the social and anti-social needs more than guards patrolling it’s perimeter, serious maintenance to fill its cracks and crumblings or even redesign and restructuring..

It’s above the pay grade of guards to heal fault lines. It’s their job to alert us when shudderings increase. Wambaugh’s the guy who’s saying, “Houston, we’ve got problem.” Enjoy this series from the first, “Hollywood Station: A Novel” then through “Hollywood Crows” and then “Hollywood Moon”. I’m downloading the apparent last of the epic, “Hollywood Moon” right now.

That’s the best recommendation I can give.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Great Entertainment

This third installment in the Wambaugh "Hollywood" series does not disapoint.
Fast paced and entertaining, this book holds your interest from start to finish and is well worth a credit.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

great rendition

aside from a few moments of real hilarity in the reading, this book was all over the place. So many disjointed characters, so few logical connections.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Fun on the beat

I have read several books in this series and they never fail to get a giggle out of me.The things these guys get into are just too bizarre not to laugh at.The narrator read with feeling,which is needed for an audio book and he came through very well here.I do miss the Oracle,however.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

A good sequel to Hollywood Crows

Fast paced and fun read. As usual Christian Rummel
does an excellent job.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Hollywood Mood

I enjoyed this book as a continued story of the "Cops" Wambaugh as written about. It can be read stand alone and still be enjoyed.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A lot of slippage here.

I chose the headline as a witty shot at the third, and by far the weakest of the ex-LAPD officer first three works dedicated to the cops of Hollywood Station. Far too much time was dedicated to the criminal "gang" in this feature. Their days were as repetitive as their thoughts and their were too many pages of both. As they usually are, the police officers were far better drawn and quite a bit more interesting than those of the criminal element in the series.
And as usual in one of the authors books; a cop dies. It's one of the staples of all of Wambaugh's books. If you're new to his novels learn to accept that a character that you've come to care about will die.
Overall I would recommend this selection only if the listener has read or listened to the two initial books in the series and enjoyed them.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great Fun with Great Characters

I really like the recurring characters in the "Hollywood" series. The action, dialogue, and situations seem realistic to me--seems like an inside look at contemporary LA. The narrator, Christian Rummel, does a fine job of consistently differentiating the characters without going overboard on dialects or pitch. I would like to be able to hear the early Wambaugh New York police genera publications--should I hold my breath for those to appear in the Audible library?

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Hollywood Moon - Not Wambaugh's Best Work!

The Hollywood series was good for the first two books, but this one dragged! It was as if the author had a deadline he had to meet. It was certainly not his best work!

As a fan of Wambaugh for many years, I will chalk this experience up to a single bad experience. On to book 4 in the series!

Good book

This was a good book. It gives a good idea of the hard parts of being a officer. Read it!