Fallen Angels

Dial’s detail-laden third procedural (after 2010’s The Broken Blue Line) features a new protagonist, Capt. Josie Corsino, the head of the LAPD’s Hollywood division. When 17-year-old movie actress Hillary Dennis, whose star was already on the descent, is shot to death at a notorious party house in the Hollywood Hills, suspicion falls on Cory Goldman because, according to the victim’s mother, Cory threatened to kill Hillary shortly before the murder. Since Cory is L.A. city councilman Eli Goldman’s son, Deputy Chief Eric Bright tells Corsino to go easy on Cory. Other pressures arise: Corsino’s son, David, is tied to Cory; Corsino’s husband, Jake, is unhappy; and too many incompetent or corrupt cops hamper her investigation. When Donnie Fricke, one of her most trusted officers, gets into trouble, Corsino must navigate the dual minefields of political and criminal activities within the vice-ridden area her division covers without Fricke’s support. Dial’s 27 years in the LAPD lend credibility to the dark picture she paints of its operations. (Apr.)