The Choirboys (1975) - Joseph Wambaugh

Written by Joseph Wambaugh
Read by Oliver Wyman
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

· Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
· Release date: 02-25-10
· Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Partners in the Los Angeles Police Department, they’re haunted by terrifying dark secrets of the nightwatch - shared predawn drink and sex sessions they call choir practice. Each wears his cynicism like a bulletproof jockstrap - each has his horror story, his bad dream, and his night shriek. He is afraid of his friends–he is afraid of himself.

Goodreads is loaded with excellent reviews, paragraphs and pages of them because a sentence or two doesn’t do it. Here are a few.

The Choirboys takes place in 1975 and follows the five pairs or partners as they try to deal with LA’s dangerous, insane and grotesque. Most crime novels center on a big case, or at least a single crime family. The Choirboys has a structure more like a ride along with certifiable patrolmen, which lets Wambaugh (himself a 14-year veteran of the LAPD) tell stories that are almost never told. Wambaugh’s experience mean it’s full of little details that I love, like the fact that they park thirty inches deeper into traffic when they pull someone over. That way both men can approach the car without getting run over by a motorist behind them driving H.U.A. (Head Up Ass.) If you’re a fan of Homicide (and you should be) The Choirboys is worth checking out.”

“What keeps this book from being just a depressing look into the abyss is that it’s black cop humor is constant. There’s almost nothing that happens that can’t be made into sick humor and there’s no asshole boss so irritating that he can’t be the victim of an ingenious prank for revenge. It’s crude and socially unacceptable, but it’s really damn funny, too.”

”What Wambaugh shows is that these “choir practices” are usually the direct result of the horrible things the cops routinely have to deal with while constantly being harassed by their bosses for violations of petty rules while ignoring the emotional well-being of the officers. The worst part of it is that while the choirboys are routinely abused while dealing with parade of ignorant lowlifes and see the worst that people can do to themselves and each other, it’s all so achingly common place that they can’t muster more than slight contempt and dark humor. Until they see something so horrible that they call for a choir practice to block it out with booze and meaningless sex.”

A police officer’s view–“ The book is mostly a series of events leading up to a tragedy. There is no central plot…the events are tragic, hilarious, semi-serious, bizarre, disgusting and horrific. Some of these events took me back to calls I’ve been on in the past. A pretty good book all in all. … The various racial epitaphs didn’t offend me nor should you be. First of all the book is forty years old and second of all police work isn’t a nice job. It can get ugly at times and cops are called things and say things that aren’t always real pleasant. If you’re sensitive about such things (and no I am not making fun of you if you are) then don’t read this novel. However by today’s standards it’s actually pretty mild - with a few notable exceptions.”

“For writers, this book is a fantastic example of defining and developing memorable characters by showing their day-to-day, repetitive traits. Wambaugh’s characters pop fully formed into your head, set up shop, and hang out for the entire time you’re reading the novel.”

The dead torrent on site appears to be these same files reduced to 64k