L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City - Crime Novel | Historical Mystery | Perfect for Book Clubs & Noir Enthusiasts

I'm a big fan of old film noir, not such a fan of the old police docu-dramas. I've always loved watching the old TV shows like S.W.A.T and CHiPs, but I never enjoyed Dragnet or Adam-12. However...the new movie Gangster Squad really grabbed my attention, as did the recent video game L.A. Noir. So when I came across this book by John Buntin, I hoped it was as good as it looked. It was better, which is amazing, because that front cover is darned near perfect.Buntin takes the story of LA's gangsters and the LAPD from the early 1900's up to the 1990's. He does so by following the careers of the two most prominent men from both sides of the law in Los Angeles: police officer Bill Parker and gangster Mickey Cohen. What follows is a fascinating tale of politics, crime, corruption, and the growth of a small California town into one of the largest and most racially complex cities in the United States.What I liked most about this book was the way it bridged a number of eras into one seamless narrative. I look at the various eras of history through the lenses of movie and television cameras. The 1920's and 30's are characterized by the shaky, blurry black and white film that captured Los Angeles we know from movies like Charlie Chaplin's and early gangster flicks. There's the clearer yet darker film of the 1940's and 50's, showcasing the flashy yet dangerous L.A.of film noir. Early color TV and film was desaturated, low-keyed, as we watched Joe Friday and Malloy and Reed patrol the streets and track down criminals. A more colorful Los Angeles emerges in the 1970's and 80's, both racially and pop-culturally, midst the action of S.W.A.T. and Hunter, to name just a few TV shows, and countless movies. By the 1990's my view of Los Angeles was seen mostly through CNN, highlighted, or course, by the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots.Why have I mentioned all of this? Because in L.A. Noir, the author ties all of these eras together, and you can see how crime and law grew and transformed along with this city. Yet, he does it through the viewpoints of two very unique people. Mickey Cohen is not your average gangster. He can be very peculiar, magnanimous, charming, and confounding. Parker, the career cop who becomes a Police Chief of legend, is just as strange. He is courageous in his youth, petulant to his superiors, naive to the ways of his fellow officers, politically ambitious, petty, yet quite the visionary as an administrator. His racial biases contribute to the Watts riots, which directly effects the eventual troubles surrounding the Rodney King stories.Of particular interest was the shocking end of both men. If you don't know what happened to them, as I didn't, don't spoil the book by looking it up on wikipedia. Just read the book. The story is compelling, frustrating, sensational, funny (yes, there are many humorous moments), unbelievable, and terribly tragic. But through it all you might just come away with a new perspective on a police force that has been historically reviled.Kudos to John Buntin for his exhaustive research and craftsmanship with his pen.