Mysterious Press is currently running a special offer on seven of Joseph Wambaugh's stand-alone crime thrillers, with the Kindle editions priced at just $2.99 each (as of the date and time of this post). These titles are listed below in the order of their original publication date.
Important Note: Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.
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The Black Marble
Originally published in 1977, this mystery was adapted into the theatrical film of the same title starring Robert Foxworth (as A. A. Valnikov) and Paula Prentiss (as Natalie Zimmerman).
The Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Station is like a strainer, dredging the heart of L.A. and coming up with the city's worst scum. But few criminals in its holding cells are lower than Detective A. A. Valnikov, a broken cop consumed with love for vodka and self-hatred. He was a useful detective once, but that was twenty years ago, and any pride he takes in his work is now long gone.
His new partner is Natalie Zimmerman, an ambitious young detective eager to make good on her potential. The brass sticks her with Valnikov in hopes that she might help hold him together. She thinks it's a sick joke, but it could be that the old lush has something to teach her. A dognapper is terrorizing Pasadena's high society, and as the city's grime floats to the surface, A. A. Valnikov should feel right at home.
The Glitter Dome
Originally published in 1981, this book was adapted into the 1984 HBO film of the same title starring James Garner, Margot Kidder, and John Lithgow.
The Glitter Dome is the ugliest bar in Chinatown. Its proprietor is a man named Wing, a third-generation immigrant who speaks with a thick accent for daytime tourists, but perfect English at night, when off-duty cops flood the seedy tiki bar, looking to blow off steam.
Bellowing in the middle of the dance floor is Buckmore Phipps, the burly bully of Hollywood Boulevard. At one end of the bar, Detective Cal Greenberg complains that today's music has nothing on Glenn Miller, while at the other Detective Al Mackey mumbles into his glass of Tullamore Dew, not caring that Wing shortchanges him on every drink.
The Delta Star
Originally published in 1983.
In death she looks thirty-five, but Missy Moonbeam, a.k.a. Thelma Bernbaum, is only twenty-two when the cops of Rampart Division find her flattened on the sidewalk. A Nebraska farm girl, Missy came to Los Angeles to act, and died not long after her dream did. The detectives assume that her pimp threw her off a roof—but they couldn't be more wrong. Missy had a trick at Caltech whose name draws the Rampart detectives into a bizarre conspiracy. A beached Soviet sub has Europe on the brink of war, and only Rampart Division can pull the world back from disaster.
They are a motley gang. There's the Bad Czech, a certifiable psychopath whose chief pleasure is yelling at the Los Angeles Times. There's Mario Villalobos, whose midlife crisis has made him sentimental. And there's Jane Wayne, a New Wave fan, sex addict, and proudly violent cop. This case will take them all the way to Stockholm, but they won't win any Nobel Peace Prize.
The Golden Orange
Originally published in 1990.
Prenuptial agreements have not been kind to Tess Binder. Although briefly married to the 303rd richest man in the world, their marriage contract ensured that she got nothing when he left her for a manicurist he met playing singles at the John Wayne Tennis Club. A Westport lifestyle is expensive, and without a husband to subsidize it, Tess will be broke soon. In need of a sucker, she calls on Winnie Farlowe.
An ex-cop with a bad back and an even worse drinking habit, Winnie recently achieved notoriety by piloting a ferry while blackout drunk. He rammed three yachts but, killing no one, got off with probation. Though Tess is miles out of his league, he doesn't ask questions when she throws herself at him. Drunk on love, Winnie Farlowe is heading for the worst hangover he's ever had.
Fugitive Nights
Originally published in 1992.
After twenty years in the Los Angeles Police Department, Breda Burroughs is happy to trade her badge for a private agency in sunny Palm Springs. But when a strange case requires her to go someplace only cops are allowed, she finds that for the first time ever she needs a partner. She should not have asked Lynn Cutter.
A woman has hired Breda to find her missing husband—an impotent rich man who, for some reason, has been donating to sperm banks. Breda needs Lynn because the banks don't have to give up their records to anyone but the police, but Lynn is too nasty for a case this sensitive. A veteran cop with two busted knees, he helps Breda because he needs the money. What he gets instead is a wild chase across the Southwest, risking his life to find a man that no one really missed in the first place.
Finnegan's Week
Originally published in 1993.
Fin Finnegan is no name for an actor, but the name is not the reason Fin's career is a terminal case. He's middle-aged and balding, his agent is a fool, and worst of all, he lives in San Diego. Harbor Nights could change his luck. There's a recurring part in the late-night melodrama for a sociopathic killer, and Fin thinks he fits the bill. After two decades in the San Diego police force, he knows sociopaths.
His latest murderer is not a person, but a fifty-five gallon drum of Guthion, a toxic chemical whose disposal requires extreme care. Unfortunately, the man shipping it is Jules Temple, a lifelong con artist who isn't bothered when the Guthion goes missing. Its first victim is a child. If acting doesn't kill him first, Fin Finnegan could be next.
Floaters
Originally published in 1996.
For the first time in history, New Zealand threatens to win the America's Cup regatta. Losing the yacht race would be a great blow to the United States sailing community, which has clung to the Cup for nearly all of its 150-year history—but it would be an even greater loss for Ambrose Lutterworth. As the Keeper of the Cup, he has been responsible for the trophy for the seven years since it was won by the San Diego Yacht Club, and his ceremonial position has allowed him to travel the world exhibiting it. If the Cup leaves San Diego, his lifestyle goes with it.
To rig the race he sets in motion a sinister plot involving prostitution, bribery, and a corrupt crane operator. When two harbor policemen get on his trail, they learn that gentility and murder are not mutually exclusive.
