Joseph Wambaugh

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 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 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 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, …

The Black Marble is a novel written by Joseph Wambaugh.