About the Author

Joseph Wambaugh is the hard-hitting bestselling writer who conveys the passionate immediacy of a special world. He was a police officer with the LAPD for14 years before retiring in 1974, during which time he published three bestselling novels. Over the course of his career, Wambaugh has been the author of more than 20 works of fiction and nonfiction, all written in his gritty, distinctive noir-ish style. He's won multiple Edgar Awards, and several of his books have been made into feature films and TV movies. He lives in California with his wife.

Reviews

Praise for Joseph Wambaugh's Finnegan's Week:

"A master storyteller...Wambaugh dazzles." -- Digby Diehl, Playboy

"Funny, exciting, and ultimately touching." --Chicago Tribune

"One of the best novels Joseph Wambaugh has written...Wambaugh is in rare form." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Wambaugh is at the top of his form here...raunchy and often hilarious." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Praise for Joseph Wambaugh's Finnegan's Week:

"A master storyteller...Wambaugh dazzles." -- Digby Diehl, Playboy

"Funny, exciting, and ultimately touching." --Chicago Tribune

"One of the best novels Joseph Wambaugh has written...Wambaugh is in rare form." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Wambaugh is at the top of his form here...raunchy and often hilarious." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A plot to sabotage New Zealand's entry in the America's Cup regatta forms the premise for Wambaugh's latest police thriller, a slow-moving affair that nonetheless features the author's usual rough-and-tumble prose as well as an intriguing examination of both aquatic police work and the world of competitive yachting. The prime conspirator is Ambrose Lutterworth, the "Keeper of the Cup," an aging real estate agent and yachting enthusiast. Ambrose hopes to prevent the trophy from leaving its temporary home at the San Diego Yacht Club by using expensive call girl Blaze Duvall to coerce the city's harbor crane operator into damaging the powerful New Zealand boat in dry dock, ensuring an American victory. Blaze's conspicuous trail is picked up by a pair of harbor cops, Fortney and Leeds, who receive some vital assistance from a couple of vice cops. Wambaugh takes too long to develop Lutterworth's unimaginative scheme and to link an eventual murder to the posh world of the America's Cup. The sparks fly, however, when the sabotage plan unravels and an attempted blackmail results in another murder. The author's trademark sardonic writing is in full force here, and the police material is, as always, authentic, with the harbor cops' antics particularly entertaining. This may not be Wambaugh's high water mark, but it's not his low tide, either. (June)