FINNEGAN'S WEEK

Rating:
Summary: Reads more like Elmore Leonard than the old Wambaugh.
Review: Much, much more fun than previous work. My wife and I both laughed out loud while reading Finnegan's Week. It's larger than life, but believable all the way. In our opinion, this is Wambaugh's best novel.

Rating:
Summary: One of Wambaugh's best, Fin is a winner.
Review: Wambaugh delivers as usual in this funny, exciting tale of an cop who's an aspiring actor (and who's facing midlife crises as only an actor wannabe can) while in the middle of investigating a truck theft that turns out to also involve a theft from a Naval warehouse as well as a load of missing toxic waste. His case brings him into contact with two tough and sexy Policewomen, each with her own private and professional agenda. Will Fin Finnegan (the cop-actor-hopeful) get the part he's trying out for? Will he survive a week filled with too much booze, a murderous sociopath business owner, a druggy biker turned trucker, and two beautiful women who both seem as interested in him as they are in the case at hand? This is typical Wambaugh in that the horrors and sadness of the crimes and victims are not treated lightly, yet (like the good cops who frequent his novels) our only salvation from evil is to laugh at his sometimes mordant humor and wit. One of Wambaugh's strengths is his ability to gradually make his characters sympathetic and likeable, sometimes even when they're not the good guys. I rate this as one of Wambaugh's best novels, and that's saying something, since in my opinion he's never written a bad one. I wish he would recover his muse and write some more fiction in the vein of this novel and FUGITIVE NIGHTS. It's been a while since he's come out with any novels. A shame, because no one else writes about police life in quite the same way.

A five star rating for the humor, characters, and the suspense.

Rating:
Summary: Well done
Review: Wambaugh has a flair for scriptwriting equal to Quinton Tarantino at his best. He's brutal, sly, topical, sharp, intense and outrageous all at the same time. This novel can be a bit silly at times, but never does it become stale. "Finnegan's Week" should appeal to readers of a wide variety of tastes, and I'm surprised that Wambaugh doesn't have a larger following than he has. His plots weave in and out, and he always finds a unique way to bring it all together at the end. His razor-sharp wit sets him apart from the rest of the thriller writers out there. A great, fun read with a superior style.