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THE SECRETS OF HARRY BRIGHT, 1985
Readers of previous novels by Joseph Wambaugh will not be surprised that Sidney Blackpool, the central character in The Secrets of Harry Bright, is a Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective. But in this new book Joseph Wambaugh sets a different scene and a new theme while continuing to entertain with his special brand of bawdy, beautiful, black humor.
The place is the California desert: Mineral Springs, a sand-blown, down-scale outpost of glittering Palm Springs with its exclusive country clubs, heavily guarded homes, and suntanned celebrities. Seventeen months before, Jack Watson, a handsome, wealthy young man, was incinerated in his father’s Rolls-Royce on a dark canyon road. But the bullet in his head proved it was no accident.
“You really can’t hope for justice for your son after this much time passed, Mr. Watson.”
“I know, Sid. I don’t want justice.”
“Well, whadda you want?”
“Revenge, of course. A sliver of revenge.”
So why does Sidney Blackpool agree to take the case? Is it because old man Watson is dangling a six-figure retirement job? Or because Sidney has always dreamed of swatting a ball on the world’s most expensive golf turf? Or because of the death of his own son? Is there a common bond between fathers of lost sons, which compels the detective to dig deeper and deeper? To uncover a case that should have been left buried by the wind and sand.
A riveting police drama, Joseph Wambaugh’s novel is also a moving story of a detective’s search for the meaning of his son’s death and of his own life.
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