Joseph Wambaugh once again brings the Los Angles Police Department to life as he opens his third novel set in Hollywood Station. The first two were Hollywood Station and Hollywood Crows.

As a veteran writer of the police procedural, no one does a better job writing about the life and times of a police officer than Wambaugh, in this reader's opinion.

He brings some of his previous characters back, such as Hollywood Nate, a character actor who works as a cop... or is it the other way around? Then there are Flotsam and Jetsam, the Hollywood cops who are also serious surfer Dudes.

This time, Waumbaugh also tells the story of several female police officers and manages to convey some of the situations that are unique to women working in the law enforcement field.

Throughout the whole book, the criminals, cops and characters of Hollywood take a starring role. Between the identity thieves, a teenage rapist, con artists, transvestites and bowling midgets the cops manage to come out on top and keep both their sanity and humanity.

I had not read Wambaugh in a while and was pleasantly surprised with how he is keeping up with the times. He is a writer who started in the seventies and is still right on top of today's slang and criminal behavior. This was a thoroughly enjoyable book and enough of an incentive to go out and read some of the backlist that I had missed.