More gross-out adventures, Wambaugh-style, at the L.A. Police Department—with a murder investigation in Hollywood and side-trips into narcotics, kiddy porn, massage parlors, transvestitism, and police brutality. Again, like The Choirboys, this is more a montage of grotesque/grim/comic vignettes than a novel. But the main focus is on two miserable mid-40s detectives assigned to "clear"—by fakery, if necessary—the strange Sunset Blvd. murder of movie-studio chief Nigel St. Claire: Al Mackey, who's alcoholic, suicidal, sloppy, much-divorced, recently impotent; and cool, neat Martin Welborn, who's suffering from a marital separation and haunted by two of his cases (the murder of an informer, a horrid child-mutilation). So Mackey and Welborn start sleuthing around the movie studio. But their main clues are soon coming instead from farcically coincidental cases pursued by other cop-teams. . . like vicious narcs "Ferret" and "Weasel" or sadistic "street monsters" Buckmore Phipps and Gibson Hand. And these clues—involving a hustler/model (a pseudo-naive Marine), a teenage-runaway hooker, and other sleazy types—suggest that St. Claire had teamed up with a mystery man (in a Bentley) to recruit actors for kiddy porn. . .or maybe even a snuff movie. Yes, Hollywood's foulness is the theme here—as becomes blatantly clear when Mackey and Welborn attend (undercover) a big movie-world party: the guests mix their "metaphors of sex and money like a horde of hookers"; Mackey winds up with a revolting masochist who demands that he handcuff her ("I'm helpless, you filthy gorilla of a rapist!"); and Welborn falls for an actress. . .whose career-over-love attitude will help edge him into suicide. Serious stuff. Unfortunately, however, Wambaugh's mixture of cartoon-violence, station-house satire (a blowhard captain named Woofer), and emotional matters doesn't quite work this time around; the alcoholic cop in The Black Marble was more engaging and tragic than either of the similarly burned-out basket cases here. And the mystery plot itself goes nowhere fast. Still, those who reveled in The Choirboys' neanderthal hijinks will probably not be disappointed (there are chases, practical jokes, and one really disgusting slapstick sequence). And even more discriminating readers—who'll be annoyed by the overkill, the messy plotting, and the jarring shifts in tone—will continue to be impressed by Wambaugh's pungent dialogue and garishly convincing details.
Pub Date: June 15, 1981
ISBN: 0553272594
Page Count: -
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1981
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable...
An unlucky woman finally gets lucky in love on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.
From getting her hand stuck in a claw machine at age 6 to losing her job, Olive Torres has never felt that luck was on her side. But her fortune changes when she scores a free vacation after her identical twin sister and new brother-in-law get food poisoning at their wedding buffet and are too sick to go on their honeymoon. The only catch is that she’ll have to share the honeymoon suite with her least favorite person—Ethan Thomas, the brother of the groom. To make matters worse, Olive’s new boss and Ethan’s ex-girlfriend show up in Hawaii, forcing them both to pretend to be newlyweds so they don’t blow their cover, as their all-inclusive vacation package is nontransferable and in her sister’s name. Plus, Ethan really wants to save face in front of his ex. The story is told almost exclusively from Olive’s point of view, filtering all communication through her cynical lens until Ethan can win her over (and finally have his say in the epilogue). To get to the happily-ever-after, Ethan doesn’t have to prove to Olive that he can be a better man, only that he was never the jerk she thought he was—for instance, when she thought he was judging her for eating cheese curds, maybe he was actually thinking of asking her out. Blending witty banter with healthy adult communication, the fake newlyweds have real chemistry as they talk it out over snorkeling trips, couples massages, and a few too many tropical drinks to get to the truth—that they’re crazy about each other.
Heartfelt and funny, this enemies-to-lovers romance shows that the best things in life are all-inclusive and nontransferable as well as free.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2803-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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