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THE DELTA STAR, 1983
In this fascinating police novel, Wambaugh mixes the think-tank world of Nobel Prize chemistry with the underworld of cops and killers.
In October 1984 a Soviet submarine carrying nuclear-tipped torpedoes ran aground in restricted Swedish waters. The story made world headlines. But homicide detective Mario Villalobos and the other cops at Rampart Station, Los Angeles Police Department, had more immediate things to worry about: Why was a street-walker named Missy Moonbeam pushed from the roof of the Wonderland Hotel? How come her trick book contained the telephone number of Caltech, one of the world’s finest institutions of scientific learning? How did The Bad Czech, the meanest, maddest cop in the division, end up with a dead man’s credit card instead of his own?
Wambaugh is back with his cops-gone-crazy brand of humor, and a cast of wild, wonderful characters, including Hans and Ludwig of the K-9 Corps (Ludwig is the dog); Rumpled Ronald who, with two days to a pension, thinks he’ll never make it; Policewoman Jane Wayne, who has the hots for The Bad Czech; and at center stage, Detective Mario Villalobos and his newfound girlfriend, Lupe Luna. Villalobos links the Soviet sub with an L.A. homicide by pushing himself far past his limits when he comes across a set of scientific symbols called delta to delta star.
With its extraordinary power, vividness and war-zone humor, The Delta Star follows in the gripping tradition of Joseph Wambaugh’s previous best sellers...but with a new scientific twist.
WHAT REVIEWERS HAD TO SAY
“Joseph Wambaugh’s characters have altered America’s view of its police. His Los Angeles officers are...ordinary, besieged working men and women whose lives are presented with war-zone huymor, lively plots and a refreshing lack of night-school sociology.” J.D. Reed, Time
“Wambaugh is, in fact, a writer of genuine power, style, wit and originality, who has chosen to write about the police in particular as a means of expressing his views on society in general. Evan Hunter, The New York Times Book Review
“The power and integrity of Wambaugh’s work are unimpeachable. He is one of our foremost novelists.” George Anderson, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
“Wambaugh excels at swift, cruel caricature; he does for the LAPD what Daumier did for lawyers. The action squeals and caroms like a black and white popping a wheelie off the Golden State...” Tom Nolan, New West
“Wambaugh is an author as confident of his effects and as firmly in control of tones and tensions as a James M. Cain or a John O’Hara. He is a great storyteller whose stories delineate a world nearly too real.” Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times
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