Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... The Blue Knightby Joseph Wambaugh
Books Read in 2020 (511) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book was on a list of recommended mysteries, and was found in the mystery section--yet I don't think it really belongs there--both because this is no whodunnit, but also because it transcends that genre. We follow "Bumper" Morgan through the last three days of this beat in 1970s Los Angeles before he retires after 20 years on the police force. And it's a great voice for a great character. Bumper is both cynical and idealistic--a knight with slightly tarnished armor--he feels very real. He's getting to an age where he can't do the job anymore that holds him in its grip--he's fat, he can't run, he has gas and his eyes aren't as sharp as they once were. And as his best friend and fellow cop Cruz Segovia tells him, the job is a whore, taking without giving, and his only hope is being able to accept love and a life beyond it. I love how Bumper is not just allowed to make mistakes, but that those mistake have consequences. There's a bit of Don Quixote and Willy Loman in Bumper. In his introduction, Michael Connelly says a great work of crime fiction tells not of how a cop works his cases, but how the cases work him, and by any measure this is a great work of crime fiction on those terms that made me think all through about what it must be like to be a cop. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesDell Books (10607) Is contained inDistinctions
Fiction.
Thriller.
Ex-cop turned #1 New York Times bestselling writer Joseph Wambaugh forged a new kind of literature with his great early police procedurals. Gritty, luminous, and ultimately stunning, this novel is Wambaugh at his best--a tale of a street cop on the hardest beat of his life. Twenty and two. Those are the numbers turning in the mind of William "Bumper" Morgan: twenty years on the job, two days before he "pulls the pin" and walks away from it forever. But on the gritty streets of L.A. , people look at Bumper like some kind of knight in armor--they've plied him with come-ons, hot tips, and the hard respect a man can't earn anywhere else. Now, with a new job and a good woman waiting for him, a kinky thief terrorizing L.A.'s choice hotels, and a tragedy looming, Bumper Morgan is about to face the only thing that can scare him: the demons that he's been hiding behind his bright and shiny badge... No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
Main character is Bumper Morgan a veteran of the LAPD
He is working his last few days of his beat as is due to retire at the end of the week.
20 years on the job and he is nearly 50.
Bumper is a larger than life character and has met many nice and not so nice people on his beat.
People look up to him as he uses common sense to police the streets.
Spoiler alert Bumper's friend and Boss is killed and now its looking like he cant retire just yet as he wants to avenge his killing. ( )