Joseph Wambaugh

The Secrets of Harry Bright is the seventh novel written by former Los Angeles Police Department detective Joseph Wambaugh. Published in 1985, the book continues a pattern of Wambaugh crime fiction beginning with The Choirboys that uses black humor to explore the psychological effects of prolonged stress on veteran …

The Onion Field is a 1973 nonfiction book by Joseph Wambaugh, a sergeant for the Los Angeles Police Department, chronicling the kidnapping of two plainclothes LAPD officers by a pair of criminals during an evening traffic stop and the subsequent murder of Officer Ian James Campbell. It was one of the most influential …

The New Centurions, written by Joseph Wambaugh, is a 1971 novel depicting the stresses of police work in Los Angeles, California in the early 1960s. The author wrote the novel, his first, while a working member of the Los Angeles Police Department. The novel became a film starring George C. Scott and Stacy Keach.

The Delta Star is a novel by author Joseph Wambaugh first published in 1983. The book tells several stories of a group of police in the Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department. The main characters include Detective Mario Villalobos and The Bad Czech. An excerpt of the first published version was featured …

The Choirboys, a novel, is a controversial 1975 work of fiction written by Los Angeles Police Department officer-turned-novelist Joseph Wambaugh. In 1995 the novel was selected by the Mystery Writers of America as Number 93 of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time. The Choirboys is a tragicomic parody about the effects …

The Blue Knight is the second novel by former LAPD detective Joseph Wambaugh, and was written while he was still a serving detective. It follows the last days on the beat for a veteran LAPD police officer, detailing his thoughts and actions from a first person perspective. The narrative is written in a coarse, …