I recently read this newish nonfiction book and enjoyed it quite a bit. It
takes the form of a dual biography, narrating the lives of gangster Mickey
Cohen and L.A.P.D. Chief William Parker, in parallel, from the 1920s right
up through the Watts riots in the 1960s. The author has an academic
background in the study of government, and in his Afterword he says he was
interested in the institutional history of the L.A.P.D., how it went from
the Department of "L.A. Confidential" to that of "Dragnet". He says he
thinks the answer to that is found in the career of Parker. The subject is
certainly colourful and eventful. I found that for me the book really did
help fill in the background to novels I've read by Chandler, Ross Macdonald,
Ellroy, and others. Of course I didn't know much about L.A.'s history going
in. I'm wondering what others, who know more about it, may think of the
book.
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