Harbor Nocturne

MWA Grand Master Wambaugh ventures into L.A.’s San Pedro district in his highly entertaining fifth novel to feature his Hollywood Station crew (after 2010’s Hollywood Hills). Surfer cops “Flotsam and Jetsam” get their first “intelligence-gathering mission” to ferret out the “money guys” behind a ring of erotic massage parlors, whose human trafficking operation may have resulted in the deaths of 13 Asian immigrants smuggled in a container at San Pedro’s shipping yards. Jetsam’s amputated foot is their entry to a wealthy Russian with an infatuation with amputees. Meanwhile, a Romeo and Juliet love burgeons between Dinko Babich, a Croatian longshoreman, and Lita Medina Flores, a Mexican dancer whose roommate’s sister was among the container’s victims. Razor-edged dialogue punctuates the vignette-filled plot. Realistic criminals are well matched by Wambaugh’s equally authentic police, including “Hollywood Nate” Weiss and a lazy cop nicknamed Unicorn, in this darkly comic, gritty look at life on the streets. (Apr.)