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L.A. Rex. SIGNED by author
A fierce and ferocious, grittily cinematic debut crime novel that recalls both Richard Price and Quentin Tarantino set loose on South Central Los Angeles- James Ellroy with a soundtrack by Death Row Records-by an LAPD anti-gang officer who continues to patrol the streets he writes about.Unabridged CDs - 8 CDs, 9 hours
Hardcover
First published September 21, 2006
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May 6, 2020
"Crude letters burned into a wooden plaque over the 77th Division roll-call room read 'ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.' Ben arrived early and took his seat in the first row." -- page 9
Full disclosure - I think my opinion of L.A. Rex was partially soured because last month, by mere coincidence, I read an outstanding book called Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America (would it sound redundant to say I much recommend it?) by L.A. Times reporter Jill Leovy. Leovy's work was about a homicide investigation in south-central Los Angeles, a strong true crime / sociological narrative giving special focus to both the involved police personnel and the community members.
L.A. Rex is a work of fiction - although it appears to take some inspiration from the late 90's Rampart scandal (a felonious and deadly mess involving gangs, rappers, and police in cahoots with each other), plus some of the characters are thinly-disguised versions of folks from the real world - but was authored by a then-active LAPD officer who actually worked the streets of the south-central beat. Without a doubt Beall can write, but I'll paraphrase (mangle?) a line from a movie review years ago - "Now that we know [he can write a book], it's time for him to move on and make a better one."
On the surface its a story about a rookie patrol officer paired with a streetwise veteran, and when it stays focused on the daily shift aspects of police work it is grittily first-rate and actually somewhat plausible. However, the plot gets carried away with its own audacity and disgustingly descends into a disturbingly graphic and over-the-top trash heap of beatings, shootings, and an unusually and unpleasantly high number of torture scenes. If that's not enough for you, other issues touched on include racism, corruption, pornography, child abuse / neglect, family secrets and much more. The cynicism and yuckiness level is apparently set at 'extreme.' It gets rather exhausting, and a reader is left thinking that it appears there is not a single decent person living or working in that zip code.
Another reviewer noted the half-dozen main characters are given a lot of background but otherwise little actual depth, and that's true as well. So while there are suspenseful moments a reader (unless you just love sadism) is holding the book with one hand while holding their nose with the other.
Beall has since moved on to both pen a movie screenplay and create / produce a TV series (Deputy, which was recently canceled though I enjoyed watching it), and those efforts sound like a better fit for his talent. His book begins well but concludes on a ridiculous 'cut to the chase' finale.
Full disclosure - I think my opinion of L.A. Rex was partially soured because last month, by mere coincidence, I read an outstanding book called Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America (would it sound redundant to say I much recommend it?) by L.A. Times reporter Jill Leovy. Leovy's work was about a homicide investigation in south-central Los Angeles, a strong true crime / sociological narrative giving special focus to both the involved police personnel and the community members.
L.A. Rex is a work of fiction - although it appears to take some inspiration from the late 90's Rampart scandal (a felonious and deadly mess involving gangs, rappers, and police in cahoots with each other), plus some of the characters are thinly-disguised versions of folks from the real world - but was authored by a then-active LAPD officer who actually worked the streets of the south-central beat. Without a doubt Beall can write, but I'll paraphrase (mangle?) a line from a movie review years ago - "Now that we know [he can write a book], it's time for him to move on and make a better one."
On the surface its a story about a rookie patrol officer paired with a streetwise veteran, and when it stays focused on the daily shift aspects of police work it is grittily first-rate and actually somewhat plausible. However, the plot gets carried away with its own audacity and disgustingly descends into a disturbingly graphic and over-the-top trash heap of beatings, shootings, and an unusually and unpleasantly high number of torture scenes. If that's not enough for you, other issues touched on include racism, corruption, pornography, child abuse / neglect, family secrets and much more. The cynicism and yuckiness level is apparently set at 'extreme.' It gets rather exhausting, and a reader is left thinking that it appears there is not a single decent person living or working in that zip code.
Another reviewer noted the half-dozen main characters are given a lot of background but otherwise little actual depth, and that's true as well. So while there are suspenseful moments a reader (unless you just love sadism) is holding the book with one hand while holding their nose with the other.
Beall has since moved on to both pen a movie screenplay and create / produce a TV series (Deputy, which was recently canceled though I enjoyed watching it), and those efforts sound like a better fit for his talent. His book begins well but concludes on a ridiculous 'cut to the chase' finale.
January 13, 2013
About halfway through writing this review, I reread what I had so far written. My level of snarkiness surprised me. I started thinking about why I post reviews on Goodreads, and what compels me to say such nasty things that I would never, never say in a workshop or to a writer's face. I feel ashamed of myself. In my lame attempt to amuse my friends I've acted like a total lout who feels free to bully people she's never met via the ol' interwebs, but who would be too much of a coward to swing her fists in real life. I mean, I hate Dale Peck! I think hatchet jobs are lame. Yes, I don't think L.A. Rex is the greatest book ever. Yes, I think my issues with it are legitimate ones. But Will Beall has done something I haven't: he's written a novel. And not a bad one, if that matters. Even books I've hated, like The Thirteenth Tale, are the product of hours, weeks, months, even years of work on the part of someone who does something/did something that I believe wholly, without reservation, betters us as people and makes life worth living: they made art. So, I'm going to finish this thing, and leave what I've written, but with props to the writers who do what I haven't done, and much respect to the fact that no matter how bad, how cheesy, or how irretrievably shitty I find a book, some person out there will disagree with me.
So here it is:
I am extremely susceptible to blurbs. This may be, in part, a result of my old-school "smart kid" training that dictates an almost automatic (and almost always misguided) respect for the "expert" opinion. That unfortunate tendency, combined with two other factors--my bottomless love for all things Los Angeles, and my (related) passion for James Ellroy's novels--(mis)led me to have extremely high expectations for this novel, the moment I espied it on my mother's to-read shelf. I mean her ACTUAL, REAL, PHYSICAL to-read shelf in the back office of my childhood home.
An awfully long teaching semester, several weeks of inexcusable gluttony, and multiple travels between the frigid Midwest, snowbound Northwest, and soporifically sunny Southland has dulled my never too-sharp wits, so I'll just proceed with the WHY of my discontent vis a vis old L.A. Rex (also, what the hell does that title really mean? It sounds cool, I'll give you that). As a matter of fact, I think that'll be my M.O. from now on: no plot synopses. I hate plot synopses. Plus, there is already a plot synopsis available of almost any book you'd want to read. It's called Amazon, my friends. Why must every other "review" on Goodreads (my own very much included) be reducible to a highfalutin plot synopsis? Aargh.
Point 1: PSYCHIC DISTANCE. Will Beall either does not know how to control the psychic distance of his narrator from his narrative's events or chooses not to do so in an ill-informed attempt to underscore the psychological/thematic drama of the novel. The book veers without much rhyme or reason between a fairly rigid, traditional omniscient third person in which we have the same level of access to each character's interiority and experience to a very, very, very close third person in which we are right up in Ben's head, experiencing the action from his perspective, as if we were reading a first person narrative. These shifts occur from line to line--sloppy. The effect of these lapses in psychic distance is one of dislocation and disorientation often just when the reader needs to be most grounded in the action.
Point 2: GRITTY REALISM VS. OVER THE TOP FABULISM. Dear reader, it is my contention that you cannot have your cake and eat it, too. Yes, that old homily makes no sense. Yes, I know that it most likely has its origins in some esoteric practice that makes perfect sense to say, a denizen of 17th century London. Yes, I am too lazy to perform a Google search on said axiom in order to suss out its etymology. Yes, I am probably exaggerating myself, as well as abusing the English language in my deployment of the term "fabulism" (this is not a novel of magical realism, after all, is it? OR is it?). My point is (should I ever reach it in my unquenchable thirst for tangential discourse): this novel is hailed over and over (in said blurbs) as "authentic," "gritty," and "real." I'm not sure how any fiction can be REAL, as a matter of metaphysics, but let's dispense with that concern for the moment. Basically, we're supposed to slaver all over Will Beall's spit-shined LAPD-issued jack boots because he is an actual, real-life cop (OMG!!!) who you know, was also an English Major (Double OMG!!!), and so his portrait of life in South Los Angeles, nee South Central, must be a faithful, down and dirty, no holds barred representation of life in the 'hood. You know, one that includes sword fights, blood thirsty pet jaguars, doves (I think there were doves), helicopters felled by shoulder-launched rockets, officers being eaten alive by ravenous pit-bulls, etc. I don't really have any problems with these scenes, many of which are hilarious, except for their juxtaposition with the scenes of grave realism. I guess my feeling is that in order to fully suspend one's disbelief as a reader, you sort of enter into a contract with a book, where the book agrees to sustain an internal logic particular to its universe, no matter how haywire that universe may be. This book has no such contract. The problem, and its result(s), are actually quite similar in effect to the issues with psychic distance.
Point 3 (a tricky one): RACE AND RACIAL POLITICS. This is in no way an ad hominem attack. I don't care if Will Beall is the whitest, WASPist, richest motherfucker in the land (not that he is) I would still feel that he's entitled to write about whatever he wants. My problems with the way race works in this book aren't due to my concern (that I don't posses) that somehow this author shouldn't be writing about it, or that his vision is somehow compromised by his (possible)lack of melanin or Semitic genetics. The thing is, all along, this book made me uncomfortable. NOT by depicting harsh truths that my bourgeois ass can't handle, not by implicating ALL readers in the system and infrastructure of economics, justice, and education that affords certain segments of our society opportunities that it withholds from other segments, but by its... apologist tone, for lack of a more precise explanation. The book's four main characters are a black gangster/hip hop mogul, a Mexican (American) cop, the kike-iest lawyer ever, and his half-breed Jewish son (mom was a shiksa starlet). Not one of them rang my "truth" bell. This is utterly subjective. But somehow, the writing surrounding these men felt so... condescending. Each dude is a class-A dickhead in some way (you know, murderin', pimpin', cheatin', torturin', stealin'), but each one is also a broken-hearted little boy who just needs a little love to redeem him. Yuck. I couldn't help but compare (unfavorably) this book's central dudes to the characters in The Wire, who come alive on screen in all their complex glory, and whom the writers clearly love as people. Here, I just felt that Beall treated his characters like message boards, directing and manipulating the reader to "understand"/pity them in a way that struck me as incredibly demeaning. And underneath that all, coursing through the novel's seemingingly even distribution of blame for the fucked up world that comprises its diegesis, was a faint but discernible, and undeniable, second level of condescension, aimed at the left and its efforts re social justice, police accountability, human rights, etc. The secret message of the book seemed to be (despite the novel's abundance of crooked cops) that poor people (usually of color) extort the police for money by using the media and crafty (Jewish) lawyers with questionable ethics to twist incidents of police (non)brutality into crimes of race bias, when really, the police are white knights who do what needs to be done in order to really help people. I'm not anti-police, nor have I ever called a cop a "pig", and I kind of think people who do are stupid, but COME ON. Is Will Beall fucking kidding? The book takes place in '98, just six years after the riots, in the post-Darryl Gates LAPD--I couldn't help but feel, at times, that the book was lamenting the earlier, bygone era.
I guess Scott Rudin acquired the rights to the book. He's produced some incredible and wonderful movies (The Queen, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Wonder Boys) and has a bunch of A-list films coming up or in the can, so I'll be curious to see the movie. At times, the novel read like a script for an action film. I just wonder how they'll handle (if they will) the politics...
So here it is:
I am extremely susceptible to blurbs. This may be, in part, a result of my old-school "smart kid" training that dictates an almost automatic (and almost always misguided) respect for the "expert" opinion. That unfortunate tendency, combined with two other factors--my bottomless love for all things Los Angeles, and my (related) passion for James Ellroy's novels--(mis)led me to have extremely high expectations for this novel, the moment I espied it on my mother's to-read shelf. I mean her ACTUAL, REAL, PHYSICAL to-read shelf in the back office of my childhood home.
An awfully long teaching semester, several weeks of inexcusable gluttony, and multiple travels between the frigid Midwest, snowbound Northwest, and soporifically sunny Southland has dulled my never too-sharp wits, so I'll just proceed with the WHY of my discontent vis a vis old L.A. Rex (also, what the hell does that title really mean? It sounds cool, I'll give you that). As a matter of fact, I think that'll be my M.O. from now on: no plot synopses. I hate plot synopses. Plus, there is already a plot synopsis available of almost any book you'd want to read. It's called Amazon, my friends. Why must every other "review" on Goodreads (my own very much included) be reducible to a highfalutin plot synopsis? Aargh.
Point 1: PSYCHIC DISTANCE. Will Beall either does not know how to control the psychic distance of his narrator from his narrative's events or chooses not to do so in an ill-informed attempt to underscore the psychological/thematic drama of the novel. The book veers without much rhyme or reason between a fairly rigid, traditional omniscient third person in which we have the same level of access to each character's interiority and experience to a very, very, very close third person in which we are right up in Ben's head, experiencing the action from his perspective, as if we were reading a first person narrative. These shifts occur from line to line--sloppy. The effect of these lapses in psychic distance is one of dislocation and disorientation often just when the reader needs to be most grounded in the action.
Point 2: GRITTY REALISM VS. OVER THE TOP FABULISM. Dear reader, it is my contention that you cannot have your cake and eat it, too. Yes, that old homily makes no sense. Yes, I know that it most likely has its origins in some esoteric practice that makes perfect sense to say, a denizen of 17th century London. Yes, I am too lazy to perform a Google search on said axiom in order to suss out its etymology. Yes, I am probably exaggerating myself, as well as abusing the English language in my deployment of the term "fabulism" (this is not a novel of magical realism, after all, is it? OR is it?). My point is (should I ever reach it in my unquenchable thirst for tangential discourse): this novel is hailed over and over (in said blurbs) as "authentic," "gritty," and "real." I'm not sure how any fiction can be REAL, as a matter of metaphysics, but let's dispense with that concern for the moment. Basically, we're supposed to slaver all over Will Beall's spit-shined LAPD-issued jack boots because he is an actual, real-life cop (OMG!!!) who you know, was also an English Major (Double OMG!!!), and so his portrait of life in South Los Angeles, nee South Central, must be a faithful, down and dirty, no holds barred representation of life in the 'hood. You know, one that includes sword fights, blood thirsty pet jaguars, doves (I think there were doves), helicopters felled by shoulder-launched rockets, officers being eaten alive by ravenous pit-bulls, etc. I don't really have any problems with these scenes, many of which are hilarious, except for their juxtaposition with the scenes of grave realism. I guess my feeling is that in order to fully suspend one's disbelief as a reader, you sort of enter into a contract with a book, where the book agrees to sustain an internal logic particular to its universe, no matter how haywire that universe may be. This book has no such contract. The problem, and its result(s), are actually quite similar in effect to the issues with psychic distance.
Point 3 (a tricky one): RACE AND RACIAL POLITICS. This is in no way an ad hominem attack. I don't care if Will Beall is the whitest, WASPist, richest motherfucker in the land (not that he is) I would still feel that he's entitled to write about whatever he wants. My problems with the way race works in this book aren't due to my concern (that I don't posses) that somehow this author shouldn't be writing about it, or that his vision is somehow compromised by his (possible)lack of melanin or Semitic genetics. The thing is, all along, this book made me uncomfortable. NOT by depicting harsh truths that my bourgeois ass can't handle, not by implicating ALL readers in the system and infrastructure of economics, justice, and education that affords certain segments of our society opportunities that it withholds from other segments, but by its... apologist tone, for lack of a more precise explanation. The book's four main characters are a black gangster/hip hop mogul, a Mexican (American) cop, the kike-iest lawyer ever, and his half-breed Jewish son (mom was a shiksa starlet). Not one of them rang my "truth" bell. This is utterly subjective. But somehow, the writing surrounding these men felt so... condescending. Each dude is a class-A dickhead in some way (you know, murderin', pimpin', cheatin', torturin', stealin'), but each one is also a broken-hearted little boy who just needs a little love to redeem him. Yuck. I couldn't help but compare (unfavorably) this book's central dudes to the characters in The Wire, who come alive on screen in all their complex glory, and whom the writers clearly love as people. Here, I just felt that Beall treated his characters like message boards, directing and manipulating the reader to "understand"/pity them in a way that struck me as incredibly demeaning. And underneath that all, coursing through the novel's seemingingly even distribution of blame for the fucked up world that comprises its diegesis, was a faint but discernible, and undeniable, second level of condescension, aimed at the left and its efforts re social justice, police accountability, human rights, etc. The secret message of the book seemed to be (despite the novel's abundance of crooked cops) that poor people (usually of color) extort the police for money by using the media and crafty (Jewish) lawyers with questionable ethics to twist incidents of police (non)brutality into crimes of race bias, when really, the police are white knights who do what needs to be done in order to really help people. I'm not anti-police, nor have I ever called a cop a "pig", and I kind of think people who do are stupid, but COME ON. Is Will Beall fucking kidding? The book takes place in '98, just six years after the riots, in the post-Darryl Gates LAPD--I couldn't help but feel, at times, that the book was lamenting the earlier, bygone era.
I guess Scott Rudin acquired the rights to the book. He's produced some incredible and wonderful movies (The Queen, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Wonder Boys) and has a bunch of A-list films coming up or in the can, so I'll be curious to see the movie. At times, the novel read like a script for an action film. I just wonder how they'll handle (if they will) the politics...
Read
February 19, 2010Recently there was a media debate about whether a particular film, _Precious_, was exploitative or art. I don't get the dichotomy because the two don't seem mutually exclusive to me, as proven by a long line of deeply-felt yet ghetto-sensationalizing novels, plays, and films. From Dickens and Hugo to _West Side Story_ to music videos like _Beat It_ -- and definitely including Will Beall's roman policier -- there's a mountain of evidence that poverty, crime, and racial tension are an effective background for stories that strive to stir the emotions hard.
That said, this novel already feels dated because it relies so heavily upon the details of life in South Central at the end of the crack, gangsta rap, Rodney King, OJ, and Rampart corruption scandal era. I don't know whether LA will ever have another perfect storm of criminal excess like that one, but Beall cherry-picks the very most horrific incidents from that period... and then adds his own fictive horrors. It's a lot to take.
I kept thinking I was going to bail on this story, but Beall's ear for dialogue, sense of place, and sincere love of the city kept me going even as he descended into the gratuitously stomach-churning. In the end I realized that with one exception none of the self-aware characters in this novel is actually FROM the ghetto depicted with such voyeuristic relish by the author. If that's the line between exploitation and art for you, the I'd have to put _LA Rex_ just on the other side.
That said, this novel already feels dated because it relies so heavily upon the details of life in South Central at the end of the crack, gangsta rap, Rodney King, OJ, and Rampart corruption scandal era. I don't know whether LA will ever have another perfect storm of criminal excess like that one, but Beall cherry-picks the very most horrific incidents from that period... and then adds his own fictive horrors. It's a lot to take.
I kept thinking I was going to bail on this story, but Beall's ear for dialogue, sense of place, and sincere love of the city kept me going even as he descended into the gratuitously stomach-churning. In the end I realized that with one exception none of the self-aware characters in this novel is actually FROM the ghetto depicted with such voyeuristic relish by the author. If that's the line between exploitation and art for you, the I'd have to put _LA Rex_ just on the other side.
April 9, 2011
Great start... gets stupid beyond belief before the end though.
The stupidity is really too bad, as Beall can write well. His writing reminds me of conversations and experiences with friends in Law Enforcement, and on the streets. He brings a very authentic voice to his LEO's and mopes alike. The story begins extremely compelling, and is less formulaic in its development, not laying things out in a typical or expected fashion. But, about two thirds through, Beall gets himself stuck on stupid,and a tight, original, believable plot falls off into a juvenile gangster fantasy.
I felt let down and disappointed by the last third of the book, where all of Beall's reasonable street characterization takes a left turn into bizarre, unoriginal, unbelievable, behaviors and actions, including an out of the blue, unreasoned, sword fight.
Also disappointing to me is that for an experienced police officer and Homicide detective, Beall displays little functional knowledge of firearms, or terminal ballistics. This could be a purposeful omission, for some reason, but it was annoying and sundered the air of authenticity while there still was one.
Beall showed a lot of promise in the beginning of this book, but after the end, I think I'd have to pass on anything else from him.
The stupidity is really too bad, as Beall can write well. His writing reminds me of conversations and experiences with friends in Law Enforcement, and on the streets. He brings a very authentic voice to his LEO's and mopes alike. The story begins extremely compelling, and is less formulaic in its development, not laying things out in a typical or expected fashion. But, about two thirds through, Beall gets himself stuck on stupid,and a tight, original, believable plot falls off into a juvenile gangster fantasy.
I felt let down and disappointed by the last third of the book, where all of Beall's reasonable street characterization takes a left turn into bizarre, unoriginal, unbelievable, behaviors and actions, including an out of the blue, unreasoned, sword fight.
Also disappointing to me is that for an experienced police officer and Homicide detective, Beall displays little functional knowledge of firearms, or terminal ballistics. This could be a purposeful omission, for some reason, but it was annoying and sundered the air of authenticity while there still was one.
Beall showed a lot of promise in the beginning of this book, but after the end, I think I'd have to pass on anything else from him.
July 17, 2022
I've had L.A. Rex by Will Beall sitting on my bookshelf for a while now. The cover bears praises sung by crime thriller gods Michael Connelly and Joseph Wambaugh, so I figured it had to be worth picking up. Recently, I'd wrapped up some reading I'd been doing and decided to give it a spin.
Man, I wish I'd gotten to this book earlier.
The best way to describe it would be The Shield meets Game of Thrones.
At the heart of this gritty thriller are two people: Ben Halloran, a rookie LAPD officer with a secret past; and Darius, a gangster who has gone semi-legit with a rap label. Nothing as it seems as events rapidly escalate, loyalties shift, and things grow deadlier on the street.
L.A. Rex is clearly written with an insider's knowledge, with Beall having served as a patrol officer and homicide detective with LAPD. The prose and dialogue are raw, gritty, uncensored, and authentic. It is truly a neo-noir work in that the trademark of a murky world with no outright discernible heroes is fulfilled to a T. Set against the background of the Rampart Scandal, the novel evokes images of The Shield and Training Day, while the utter disregard for moral norms brings to mind Game of Thrones.
It is a hell of a page-turning novel. I'm sad that this is the only novel that Beall published (at least that's on Amazon), though I am glad to see via Google-fu that he left LAPD to pursue a career as a screenwriter.
Highly recommended crime thriller!
Man, I wish I'd gotten to this book earlier.
The best way to describe it would be The Shield meets Game of Thrones.
At the heart of this gritty thriller are two people: Ben Halloran, a rookie LAPD officer with a secret past; and Darius, a gangster who has gone semi-legit with a rap label. Nothing as it seems as events rapidly escalate, loyalties shift, and things grow deadlier on the street.
L.A. Rex is clearly written with an insider's knowledge, with Beall having served as a patrol officer and homicide detective with LAPD. The prose and dialogue are raw, gritty, uncensored, and authentic. It is truly a neo-noir work in that the trademark of a murky world with no outright discernible heroes is fulfilled to a T. Set against the background of the Rampart Scandal, the novel evokes images of The Shield and Training Day, while the utter disregard for moral norms brings to mind Game of Thrones.
It is a hell of a page-turning novel. I'm sad that this is the only novel that Beall published (at least that's on Amazon), though I am glad to see via Google-fu that he left LAPD to pursue a career as a screenwriter.
Highly recommended crime thriller!
November 10, 2008
Great when it stays on the street, loses something in suburbs.
Only for those who think the Shield could be a little edgier.
I really wish this rating system allowed half stars, as I think this would be 4.5 stars.
The author's descriptions of day to day work of a patrolman in South Central have the air of authenticity and effectively convey a gritty reality that appear to convey the realities of the inner city without necessarily moralizing or over dramatizing (the scene with Jax and Darius after Darius has gotten revenge on the man who molested him--Darius: I don't feel anything? Jax: Isn't that better?)
The book also has a certain amount of gallows/cop humor that rings true (ex. interrogating a gang member by Marquez betting Ben he cannot shoot a beer can off the member's head and Marquez asking the banger "You want a piece of this action?"
The story loses something with the soap opera elements, the rap moguls, the big houses, Ben's father/girlfriend--and the climax of the book may be a bit to action movie for some (really--a freaking sword fight??? why not have some doves fly through the scene?) (and in all fairness the scene in the Crip house is arguably as frightening as anything from Stephen King) but Beall keeps the story moving so quickly, that by the time you get to this point you are still willing to keep your belief suspended a little longer.
Overall, good first novel, eager for his follow up.
Only for those who think the Shield could be a little edgier.
I really wish this rating system allowed half stars, as I think this would be 4.5 stars.
The author's descriptions of day to day work of a patrolman in South Central have the air of authenticity and effectively convey a gritty reality that appear to convey the realities of the inner city without necessarily moralizing or over dramatizing (the scene with Jax and Darius after Darius has gotten revenge on the man who molested him--Darius: I don't feel anything? Jax: Isn't that better?)
The book also has a certain amount of gallows/cop humor that rings true (ex. interrogating a gang member by Marquez betting Ben he cannot shoot a beer can off the member's head and Marquez asking the banger "You want a piece of this action?"
The story loses something with the soap opera elements, the rap moguls, the big houses, Ben's father/girlfriend--and the climax of the book may be a bit to action movie for some (really--a freaking sword fight??? why not have some doves fly through the scene?) (and in all fairness the scene in the Crip house is arguably as frightening as anything from Stephen King) but Beall keeps the story moving so quickly, that by the time you get to this point you are still willing to keep your belief suspended a little longer.
Overall, good first novel, eager for his follow up.
August 5, 2012
Third time reading this and it gets better each time. There's nothing soft about this book. It's the darkest, grittiest novel I've ever read. A police procedural that isn't about plain clothed homicide detectives catching the killer to deliver him to justice.
This is the streets of L.A. where the tour guides don't take anyone and not being from the hood will get you dead. In the 77TH Division nobody is what they say they are and the only difference between the boys in blue and the dealers and shot callers are the uniforms.
Top notch storytelling from a 17-year veteran of the LAPD who's walked the same streets he writes so convincingly of. A must read for fiction with guts.
This is the streets of L.A. where the tour guides don't take anyone and not being from the hood will get you dead. In the 77TH Division nobody is what they say they are and the only difference between the boys in blue and the dealers and shot callers are the uniforms.
Top notch storytelling from a 17-year veteran of the LAPD who's walked the same streets he writes so convincingly of. A must read for fiction with guts.
November 19, 2015
i stopped about 60 pages to go.... it was getting tedious and i have similar complaints as others.
it seemed like every character was given too much background and not enough depth.
Boring cliches of money-grubbing Jewish lawyers (with Yiddish slang of course), ghetto scholars, cops buying crackheads cheeseburgers, shopping while black.... definitely over-ambitious for a first novel. i would have been able to tolerate it if it was a brisk 200 pages and we got more of benji's background over 3 or 4 novels.
oh well. in the beginning i was really enjoying it and pictured Danny Trejo and maybe Elijah Wood as the leads.
it seemed like every character was given too much background and not enough depth.
Boring cliches of money-grubbing Jewish lawyers (with Yiddish slang of course), ghetto scholars, cops buying crackheads cheeseburgers, shopping while black.... definitely over-ambitious for a first novel. i would have been able to tolerate it if it was a brisk 200 pages and we got more of benji's background over 3 or 4 novels.
oh well. in the beginning i was really enjoying it and pictured Danny Trejo and maybe Elijah Wood as the leads.
January 4, 2010
One of the filthiest novels I've read in years. If this is life on the streets, then it's hard to see why anyone would ever become a cop. First novel I've ever read in which a detective is the victim of a homosexual rape - and that's just for starters. Most of the characters are wholly unredeemed, miserable people. I presume the writer thought of every nasty experience he ever had and every nasty experience he could conjure. But really, it seems like showing off just how much ugliness one can think up. If he were a great writer, okay. But he's not. He's average.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2011
fictionalize truth about the rampart scandal.
April 16, 2020
Sometimes I want a gritty read, one that will shock and thrill me and so I looked for an adult read and stumbled on this cop crime novel set in the mean streets of L.A.---the book opens with a description of a ex-felon named Wizard who “turned his life around” as a speaker against gangs but still has his foot into business with the Mexican--
“Only God could kill him now and even God wanted no part of the Mexican mafia.” (Pg. 1)
Wizard moved through the hood with the best front ever--a leader of Calle Respeto--
“Calle Respeto allowed him to move through the hood without suspicion when he called on his payers,and with Eme’s heavy mojo orbiting him like a force field, Wizard walked without fear of man or beast” (Pg. 3)
However he wasn’t that protected and the book starts off with him being abducted and tortured---enter the cops. Here the book started to remind me of Training Day and other cop movies with a rookie named Ben wet behind the ears getting teamed up with a seasoned hardass cop that wants to “show him the ropes” and how cops really get down in the field...learned to always go to the bathroom when it’s possible you might get shot-
“Always crap before you leave the barn. You never know when you’ll get another chance. Less bacteria down there in case you happen to take a bullet in the gut. If a round makes it under your vest, it bounces around, tears everything open. Your own shit poisons your blood, so even if you somehow survive the initial wound you’ll die of septicemia.” (Pg. 11)
The two cops set out in the mean streets of Cali and Los Angeles becomes sort of its own character with hard-hitting visual descriptions --
“In the gut of South Central, L.A., 77th Division encompassed less than twelve square miles of fucked America with the highest murder rate of any blighted patch of real estate west of the Mississippi…..In the hottest months of L.A.’s killing season, the poor black and Hispanic families in 77th had their kids sleep huddled on the floor in the room farthest from the street, where they’d be less likely to catch a stray bullet…..Gangs warred to control the flow of crack, warred out of boredom, warred to ward off depression. People killed each other in petty arguments, guys coming up dead over dominoes games or borrowed lawnmowers.” (Pg. 29)
This book swerved around in time and location so much it was hard to really get lost in this one, there was a storyline that threaded through but alot of wandering evil meanders...you learn who our rookie cop really is, a rich boy running from his famous lawyer father’s influence after falling in love with his stepmother and hiding from his former friend and bloodthirsty criminal Darius; though my favorite character may have been the angry racist mean ass cop Marquez as he was complex and layered...There were alot of scenes I probably won’t forget because of the extreme graphic violence but this story was too twisty for me to fall into and consider a great read….and now what will I read next….
“Only God could kill him now and even God wanted no part of the Mexican mafia.” (Pg. 1)
Wizard moved through the hood with the best front ever--a leader of Calle Respeto--
“Calle Respeto allowed him to move through the hood without suspicion when he called on his payers,and with Eme’s heavy mojo orbiting him like a force field, Wizard walked without fear of man or beast” (Pg. 3)
However he wasn’t that protected and the book starts off with him being abducted and tortured---enter the cops. Here the book started to remind me of Training Day and other cop movies with a rookie named Ben wet behind the ears getting teamed up with a seasoned hardass cop that wants to “show him the ropes” and how cops really get down in the field...learned to always go to the bathroom when it’s possible you might get shot-
“Always crap before you leave the barn. You never know when you’ll get another chance. Less bacteria down there in case you happen to take a bullet in the gut. If a round makes it under your vest, it bounces around, tears everything open. Your own shit poisons your blood, so even if you somehow survive the initial wound you’ll die of septicemia.” (Pg. 11)
The two cops set out in the mean streets of Cali and Los Angeles becomes sort of its own character with hard-hitting visual descriptions --
“In the gut of South Central, L.A., 77th Division encompassed less than twelve square miles of fucked America with the highest murder rate of any blighted patch of real estate west of the Mississippi…..In the hottest months of L.A.’s killing season, the poor black and Hispanic families in 77th had their kids sleep huddled on the floor in the room farthest from the street, where they’d be less likely to catch a stray bullet…..Gangs warred to control the flow of crack, warred out of boredom, warred to ward off depression. People killed each other in petty arguments, guys coming up dead over dominoes games or borrowed lawnmowers.” (Pg. 29)
This book swerved around in time and location so much it was hard to really get lost in this one, there was a storyline that threaded through but alot of wandering evil meanders...you learn who our rookie cop really is, a rich boy running from his famous lawyer father’s influence after falling in love with his stepmother and hiding from his former friend and bloodthirsty criminal Darius; though my favorite character may have been the angry racist mean ass cop Marquez as he was complex and layered...There were alot of scenes I probably won’t forget because of the extreme graphic violence but this story was too twisty for me to fall into and consider a great read….and now what will I read next….
November 26, 2017
It's hard to read this debut novel by an LA cop without being constantly reminded of other stories about rookie LA cops, especially the films "Training Day" and "Colors." As in both those stories, the protagonist here is a rookie white cop partnered with a streetwise old-timer. And what this book is best at is using the rookie as a way to introduce the reader to the heart of darkness that is L.A.'s 77th Division. The scenes where the rookie cop Ben is introduced to the various facets of his new world are riveting and wholly believable, from the run-down precinct house to the mean streets crawling with Crips, Bloods, Eme (Mexican Mafia), crack whores, and confidential informers. Partnered with old-school headknocker Miguel Marquez, Ben is quickly tossed into the frightening violent mix.
The problem is that the story doesn't stay on this plausible small scale. It starts promisingly enough as Ben and Marquez try and learn if some dirty cops from the infamous Rampart division are the boogeymen who are killing drug money collectors and taking no prisoners. All of this spirals into a convoluted and increasingly improbable operatic plot involving a rap mogul (modeled more or less on Suge Knight) and a Mexican drug lord, both of whom are tied to Ben's secret past life as the son of one of LA's most notorious high-profile defense lawyers! Indeed, the central conceit, that Ben "hides out" from a nationwide contract put out on him by joining the LAPD more or less conveys some of the level of silliness going on here.
Which is not to say it's not an entertaining ride. If one is willing to overlook some of the more outrageous elements and the pro-forma Machiavellian plotting and Shakespearean betrayals that pepper the story (including some ridiculous business involving the Mexican drug lord's sexy daughter), there are plenty of great moments of gritty storytelling. The entire affair is rendered a little muddled by the hop scotching in time frame, however. The chapters are variously labeled: present, 1997, 1996, 1985-95, 1989-90, 1972-95 -- and since difference time periods don't always involve the same set of characters, all this skipping around can sometimes make the pacing grind to a halt as the reader pieces it all together. On the whole, those who like their crime down and dirty or set in L.A., and have a high ability to suspend disbelief will probably find this a blast. Of course, give it a year or two and there'll probably be a movie. A final note of caution: there are some very very graphic scenes of violence in this book.
The problem is that the story doesn't stay on this plausible small scale. It starts promisingly enough as Ben and Marquez try and learn if some dirty cops from the infamous Rampart division are the boogeymen who are killing drug money collectors and taking no prisoners. All of this spirals into a convoluted and increasingly improbable operatic plot involving a rap mogul (modeled more or less on Suge Knight) and a Mexican drug lord, both of whom are tied to Ben's secret past life as the son of one of LA's most notorious high-profile defense lawyers! Indeed, the central conceit, that Ben "hides out" from a nationwide contract put out on him by joining the LAPD more or less conveys some of the level of silliness going on here.
Which is not to say it's not an entertaining ride. If one is willing to overlook some of the more outrageous elements and the pro-forma Machiavellian plotting and Shakespearean betrayals that pepper the story (including some ridiculous business involving the Mexican drug lord's sexy daughter), there are plenty of great moments of gritty storytelling. The entire affair is rendered a little muddled by the hop scotching in time frame, however. The chapters are variously labeled: present, 1997, 1996, 1985-95, 1989-90, 1972-95 -- and since difference time periods don't always involve the same set of characters, all this skipping around can sometimes make the pacing grind to a halt as the reader pieces it all together. On the whole, those who like their crime down and dirty or set in L.A., and have a high ability to suspend disbelief will probably find this a blast. Of course, give it a year or two and there'll probably be a movie. A final note of caution: there are some very very graphic scenes of violence in this book.
October 14, 2019
Raw. Brutally honest and definitely NOT for anyone who’s personal values are...aaaa...conservative. That said, as someone who knows/knew LA well, and remembers the “bad old days” of the Ramparts Division, LA REX is a powerful, gritty, magnetic novel. The characters are consistent in their values and attitudes, the plot is tight and complex and Beal is a fine storyteller. If you like Robert Mitchum movies, strong drink, and know even a little about early hip-hop, LA REX will hold your attention.
July 25, 2024
This is a sick book. It's basically Training Day or End of Watch crossed with The Departed and it's *almost* as great as that marriage sounds. Beall's habit for bombast takes it out of the Ellroy or Lehane tier of crime epic but whatever, he just wants to entertain you and there's nothing wrong with that. It helps that Beall is a good writer. I really enjoyed the characters he created, their dialogue and the hard boiled prose. It's sad this is his only book!
June 9, 2009
This is a monster of a book. It will fascinate and horrify you, and terrorize you, and you won't want to put it down. THIS is really the true literary answer to "The Wire" -- even though it is set in LA. You wouldn't think it going in, but there is true compassion mixed in with the horrifying violence. There is the trust that grows between two people simply because of shared horrors, and the realization that so many people live in situations that we can't even imagine. This is a cop novel, and the author is lauded as a worthy successor to Wambaugh, but I think it is so much more. I have to admit -- it took me awhile to become accustomed to the new noir -- choppy, edgy, nothing left but skin and sinew -- but now that I am adjusted, I am very much enjoying these books by authors such as Bruen, Starr and yes Beall. Great book.
July 12, 2010
L.A. Rex is an enjoyable read, if you're in the mood for some ultra violence, as the kids used to say. It holds together pretty well as a story, but the characters are a little comic book-y, and that's why I gave it the 'gentleman's c.' Beall is an actual police, and his experience lends a lot of knowing details to the story in a style that reminds me of the TV show Burn Notice. That feeling of authenticity, of being in the hands of someone who has been there, is the source of a lot of the pleasure I took in reading this book. If you liked Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, you'll probably like this.
February 19, 2008
I wound up with a proof, so I can't totally speak to the plot because I caught a few inconsistencies that I am sure weren't in the final. Even so, I thought that the writing was very good - better than I'd actually expected. I did expect a little more realism from the actual story, though individual scenes, such as the very first one (I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who may read this) were terrific in terms of realism and descriptiveness. I would imagine that such scenes were probably taken from Beall's own experience. Overall definitely worth reading.
November 28, 2007
Will Beall's gritty look inside of the life of criminals and cops in South Central LA is highly riveting and fast-paced, so much so it is hard to believe it was written by an actual police officer.
The characters are very colorful and memorable, important since the novel often jumps from past to present. At times, it is hard to know exactly who is a good guy and who is bad- part of the charm of this title.
This is a perfect book to give to a (likely male) friend who doesn't like to read, thinking it is a little too boring. Consider giving it as a gift, you won't be sorry.
The characters are very colorful and memorable, important since the novel often jumps from past to present. At times, it is hard to know exactly who is a good guy and who is bad- part of the charm of this title.
This is a perfect book to give to a (likely male) friend who doesn't like to read, thinking it is a little too boring. Consider giving it as a gift, you won't be sorry.
September 24, 2008
If you like the TV show THE SHIELD then this novel by a current LA cop might be right for you. In fact, this is far more intense and violent than even that show known for those things. It's a cop book with all kinds of criminals--gangbangers, gangsta rappers, dirty cops, good cops, lawyers etc etc. I must admit it gets a tad repetitive by the end and some of the violence is so over the top that it borders on the comical but I kind of like "Ellroy" styled jolts of testosterone such as this every so often.
November 29, 2011
This book was one of the best books that I have ever read. At first glance I thought that it was going to be about Will Beall's life in the 77th Division homicide, but it isn't. It's a whole story that has you thinking one thing but kinda goes into another and somehow every character in the book gets connected in a way that is that sometimes seems a bit horrific and weird. I would certainly recommend this book to anybody that likes books about cops and violence and especially to anyone that wants to find a good book to read.
July 30, 2013
I picked this up as an audiobook in a bookstore clearance bin and it is not good. What passes early on as narrative arc is left to meander aimlessly for hundreds of pages while Beall drops in tangential stories in the "craziest shit an urban cop will encounter" family. The characters are thinly drawn, the plot is crumbly and non-sequitur, and Beall's style is flowery--at times, impressive or interesting or even lyrical, but more often show-offy and obnoxious. Skip it, if it was even on your radar.
October 10, 2007
A violent and gory story written by an actual cop, full of police and gang jargon and brutal scenes for anyone who enjoys such a spectacular romp. Of course, it is contrived and over-the-top, but you just keep on reading anyway. Many allusions to the rapper wars, etc. Sure to be made into a movie, although it will have to be toned down. For those who like hard-edged, hard-boiled, action fiction. Definitely not bad for a first novel.
September 8, 2009
Gritty, dirty and raw is the only way to describe Beall's book about a LA street cop's story that intertwines with that of gang bangers, drug dealers, and rap artists. Shows all of LA's dirty secrets, and describes the reality of the crimes more than you would like to believe. A very easy read that will make you think twice of heading into East Los or South Central. Training Day has nothing on L.A. Rex!
May 22, 2010
A real cop from LA's South Central beat writes a novel about a cop from LA's South Central beat. Art imitates life? Well, sort of. Will Beall writes a pretty impressive debut novel. He's got gangs, he's got cops, he's got corrupt lawyers, he's got crime and crazy shit going on all over the place. Although there's a few instances where I thought "nah, this couldn't really happen." I found myself engrossed and read it straight through.
August 20, 2009
Just a little way in to this book. It is amazing. It's the kind of LAPD book I've been looking for. Sharp and brilliant and not at all pretty. Kind of like L.A. and the LAPD are.
Finished now. This book is amazing. As a first time author I'm in awe of this man. Few people can be this good so early in their game. Definitely recommend.
Finished now. This book is amazing. As a first time author I'm in awe of this man. Few people can be this good so early in their game. Definitely recommend.
August 27, 2011
A very interesting, raw look at the LAPD. Much of the grosser scenes were viscerally described and in great detail...don't read if you have a weak stomach for these types of things. Also, it takes any romantic notions you may have out of police work (I have to admit this made me a little sad as I'm a huge Law and Order SVU fan).
August 23, 2014
dnf. library audiobook, so no second thoughts about turning it off and deleting. Violent LA cops were the good guys, black corrupt cops and gangsters, as well as Jewish lawyers, also corrupt, suing for police brutality were the bad guys. Went pretty deep into the book before turning off and deleting.
July 28, 2007
Why has no one read this book? Top 5 for 2006.
A story about cops in L.A. - not for the squeamish!
Well written, fast paced, very in your face.
I found an autographed copy in a bargain bin and that was a happy day.
Read this book.
A story about cops in L.A. - not for the squeamish!
Well written, fast paced, very in your face.
I found an autographed copy in a bargain bin and that was a happy day.
Read this book.
May 24, 2008
This book is fucking cool. It's a fantasy piece, and if you are reading it for realism you will be heavily disappointed. But, if you are looking for a good time, page turning... thrill-ride(?) this book is a-very nice.
June 20, 2008
If you liked LA Confidential or any James Ellroy, this one will blow your mind. It makes me afraid to leave the house at night. Written by a homicide cop working in Los Angeles, it makes places I've been or driven through come alive with characters that make life hard.
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