This is the book that started it all. The frst look a what police work is really like. I read it over 35 yrs ago when I first started on the job and its still relevant today

This Sounds Like It Would Be A Great Action Book To Read.

Exelllent writer

Excellent! All of his books are must read, but be warned, once you pick the book up you won't be able to put it down.

Raw, Gritty, and funny, as only Wambaugh can do it. A must read for anyone working Patrol. Wambaugh was one of us, he writes with the sense of one who has "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt".

I've only read the Onion Field by Wambaugh, which was excellent. I'll have to get this one and read it over the holidays.

This was a required read when I was in college. I got so caught up in the story that I was reading ahead of where the class discussion was. I found it years later and re-read it. Because of this book, I read other Joseph Wambaugh books. Great writing and great stories

Hey, what cop or cop-to-be didn't read this book in the 70's! I read this one in the summer of '75 and was in the police academy by 1980 soon after turning 21! If anyone was shocked by the authenticity of the 80's Hill Street Blues or the 90's NYPD Blue - they apparently were never exposed to a Joseph Wambaugh story! This was no Dragnet or Adam-12! This book was written about the "other" side of police work - the untold stories that officers only discussed when the statute of limitations was up! I recommend this one, "The Blue Knight," "The Onion Field" and "Glitter Dome." I might just have to go find a copy of the book now - since I haven't read it in 30 years! BLH

By far the greatest police writer ever... This book was good and his other books are just as good

Anything by Joseph Wambaugh is excellent!

This is an excellent book by a very talented author. I read it in one day.

Good book and Great Writer...

GREAT BOOK!

An excellent novel that is as fun to read today as it was when I read it in the hospital in Okinawa in 1974. A reason many officers chose this career field.

I read this book when it was first published, in fact I still have the "Hard Cover," first printing edition on my bookshelf. It is a close to real life as you can get from a book, the accounts by Joseph Wambaugh of his academy class must reflect in the in this writting. A great read, then and now.

Great book anyone interested should also read The Onion Field.

Wambaughis a good writer!

One of the first "cop" books I read. Good all-around reading.

Great book! The first "police" book I ever read. I remember my father talking about it with his partners at work. All of Wambaughs books are classics and must reads for officers.

I used to make my trainee read this so the could see how their lives's would change. One of the best cop books written.

First book I read by Wambaugh. It's made me read everything he's written since then.
Captures "the street" like no other author.

I loved this book. Have to get another copy, read mine enough over the years it sorta died.

Excellent. Also recommend the other two that he wrote while still working on the LAPD, "The Blue Knight" and "The Choirboys"

Another great Wambaugh story.

This is a CLASSIC!

I could not put this book dwn!

Very good book.

Just read this book for the first time. Awesome book.

Great Book one of Wambaugh's finest. Even though it is set quite a while ago you can still relate to it in a very personal way.

Read this a long time ago. Very Good.

The best fictional police book ever written, except anything else by Wambaugh. ANY Wambaugh book is great

it was not one of his best and i have read them all

Tells how the young and innocent are corrupted by the realities of the job.

This is a classic story of cops in L.A. during the sixties. Wambaugh's first books were both entertaining and educational.

Wambaugh's first trhee books were great,after that they became dull.Red all his works.

one of Wambaugh's best. His first few were pure greatness, unfortunately it didn't stay that way.

This was the first Wambaugh book I read. Great narration of what happens to cops from a cop who has been there.

Read the book and saw the movie. Both were great