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    Harbor Nocturne
    Harbor Nocturne
    Harbor Nocturne
    Audiobook10 hours

    Harbor Nocturne

    Written by Joseph Wambaugh

    Narrated by R.C. Bray

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    When Dinko Babich, a young longshoreman, delivers Lita Medina, a young Mexican dancer, from San Pedro Harbor to a Hollywood nightclub, their lives are forever changed. An unexpectedly tender and moving love story develops among the cops and criminals who occupy the harbor, and soon Dinko and Lita are caught up in terror and peril through no fault of their own. Some LAPD characters from Wambaugh#8217;s acclaimed #8220;Hollywood Station#8221; series are here: the surfer cops #8220;Flotsam and Jetsam,#8221; aspiring actor #8220;Hollywood Nate#8221; Weiss, and young Britney Small, along with new members of the midwatch, all gamely coping with the wackiness of Hollywood. It#8217;s a tale only Wambaugh could have told, with his trademark dark humor and unflinching eye for detail.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateApr 3, 2012
    ISBN9781611747850
    Author

    Joseph Wambaugh

    The son of a policeman, Joseph Wambaugh (b. 1937) began his writing career while a member of the Los Angeles Police Department. He joined the LAPD in 1960 after three years in the Marine Corps, and rose to the rank of detective sergeant before retiring in 1974. His first novel, The New Centurions (1971), was a quick success, drawing praise for its realistic action and intelligent characterization, and was adapted into a feature film starring George C. Scott. He followed it up with The Blue Knight (1972), which was adapted into a mini-series starring William Holden and Lee Remick. Since then Wambaugh has continued writing about the LAPD. He has been credited with a realistic portrayal of police officers, showing them not as superheroes but as men struggling with a difficult job, a depiction taken mainstream by television’s Police Story, which Wambaugh helped create in the mid-1970s. In addition to novels, Wambaugh has written nonfiction, winning a special Edgar Award for 1974’s The Onion Field, an account of the longest criminal trial in California history. His most recent work is the novel Hollywood Moon (2010).

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    Reviews for Harbor Nocturne

    4/5

    55 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Wambaugh, a former L.A. cop, has churned out over twenty novels pulling on experiences he went through ‘on the job.’ He tells us there are two types of cops; that since the years after the Rodney King beating the department became full of “risk-averse cops who wanted to get through their closely supervised careers safely” and the “retro action-oriented risk takers, who always ran straight to the sound of guns.” He makes it pretty clear which one he would have us believe he is.
      The cops are regurgitated characters from his last four novels, ‘Hollywood ’ Nate and Flotsam and Jetsam, charismatic figures in the Los Angeles police Hollywood Station series who are once again called upon to carry the story-line with their side-kick partners. The stories are entertaining and probably gleaned from truth to life told to Wambaugh but more recent police escapades. None of the coppers or their adventures are as awe inspiring as his first few novels and you get a feeling Wambaugh knows this as he can’t help himself but to remind us of his illustrious writing past by referring to his 1973 masterpiece “The Onion Field,” and still have all his officers touch a picture of The Oracle, a figure from his past, as they exit the station every day, just like The Green Bay Packers getting a blessing from Lombardi every time they play; tradition is strong within the department.
      Wambaugh comes to his own in this latest narrative when he gets away from the police department and wanders into the character development of the seedy side of San Pedro and explores the lives of Lita Medina, a down-on-her-luck illegal alien from Mexico who has been caught up in the entertainment business, taking her clothes of in a local strip club. With Koreans and Russians plying their trade in the human smuggling and making these young girls pay to play local hoodlum, Hector Cozzo plies his trade as a procurer of talent for his new bosses. A chance meeting with Lita and on of Hector’s old high-school chums, Dinko Babich soon leads to true love and the unraveling of the flesh trade in San Pedro.
      With his typical dark humor Wambaugh leads us through his latest entertaining, suspense filled and tragic story-line with gritty reality. Another entertaining read from the master of police dramas.
    • 5/5
      This book, like all Wambaugh books, has laugh out loud lines and some sad parts. The "Hollywood Love Story Award" in Chapter 8 is hilarious, with the couple singing "I got you babe" in a happy ending to a domestic violence call.This book is more true to life of what it like to be an police officer than many police procedurals, in that Wambaugh was an LAPD cop for about 10 years. He said that he knew it was time to leave the LAPD when a suspect asked him for his autograph while he was handcuffing the suspect.The melancholy parts of cops lives, including a high suicide rate, and alcoholism are part of the book. Cops are shown as human beings.
    • 3/5
      Some of Wambaugh's characterizations were excellent, still one of his strong points. But some of the situations such as Dinko the ne'er-do-well boy and Lita the prostitute were over the top. It was obvious that their relationship was too good to be true... I'm glad I have read other Wambaugh books or I might not have ready any more of his books.
    • 3/5
      This was a fun audiobook. As always Joseph Wambaugh hitsthe nail on the head with his witty dialogue and wry characterizations of both police officers and the criminal element they butt heads with. In this case, Dinko Babitch finds love with a Mexican dancer who is in trouble, and the action goes back and forth between his relationship with her, the men that are after her and the police who are involved in bringing the bad guys to justice. The best thing about Wambaugh's Hollywood series are the characters. The dialogue is comical, the situations are often heart-rending and the conclusions are not always tied up neatly. In fact, I think they always leave the reader or listener wanting more. I would listen to another audiobook in this series when I am in the mood for Wambaugh's particular brand of humor involving the many personalities that he manages to include in his stories, and still keep them personally touching, exciting and fun.
    • 3/5
      Bestselling author, Joseph Wambaugh is known for his gritty novels about Los Angeles and Southern California, and Harbor Nocturne is no exception. If it were a film, I'd rate it an R for sex and violence. This is definitely an adults-only novel, and not something for the squeamish among us adults. Drugs, sex, violence, and corruption - but no rock and roll sadly enough.San Pedro is a little harbor town that's part of the southwestern Los Angeles mega-metro area but, like all of the other little towns that make up the Los Angeles area, it's got its own identity and that identity has shifted over the years. What used to be a sleepy, solidly middle-class area has become more marginalized and prone to violence and crime.The men in Dinko Babich's family has a proud history as San Pedro harbor longshoremen, and he's been kind of following in that tradition but not doing a particularly good job at it. Truth be told, his life is pretty messed up. He agrees to help a friend out by delivering a young Mexican bar dancer, Lita Medina, to a Hollywood club late one night; however, he's smitten as soon as he sets eyes on her. He doesn't realize that he's just stepped into the middle of an international human slavery ring or that he'll be caught between two rival gangs/factions like a deadly rock and a hard place. Dinko is in love and wants to do the right thing by Lita, no matter what, and Lita wants out of the trap she's found herself in. And those are the perfect elements for this very suspenseful noir novel.Although I'm not going to review this novel for my web site because it goes a bit too over the edge compared to novels I normally review there, it is well written and poor Dinko has a good heart. Included in Harbor Nocturne are some of the more colorful characters who grace other Wambaugh novels, and who make for outstanding comic relief in this very dark story.Should you read it? If you're a Joseph Wambaugh fan, absolutely! If you haven't read Joseph Wambaugh before but you like books about the gritty underbelly of life, then go for it!
    • 4/5
      The harbor district of San Pedro in Los Angeles is the center of action in the story. The surrounding area is made up of businesses related to shipping but also many ethnic groups and adult establishments.The overworked LAPD is attempting to patrol an area that has many street gangs and people who don't speak the same language as the police.Dinko Babich does a favor for a friend and takes a young Mexican dancer to a nightclub for an employment interview.These two innocent characters have a magnetic attraction toward each other. They fall in love amidst the activities of the dance hall and the illegal aliens that have been brought to the adult establishments.When thirteen Asians are found sufficated in a transportation container on a ship at the harbor, there is a public outcry to find and punish the guilty parties.With Joseph Wambaugh there is always humor and in this case, one of the investors in the night club has a fetish for amputated body parts.The action moves in waves with stories of the LAPD interspersed with the happenings of Dinko and Lita.This is an entertaining novel that depicts a slice of life and hope and the tragic events that can change everything.