The Black Marble

Russian-American detective A. A. Valnikov is a burned-out homicide detective who gets teamed with Natalie Zimmerman, twice-divorced with a grudge against men. These unlikely partners are assigned the strange case of a stolen show dog being held for ransom. In this bittersweet tale that the ''Los Angeles Times'' called ''terrifying and romantic,'' the partners will find much more than they ever could have imagined. ''Cosmopolitan ''called it ''fast, colorful and gripping . . . as touching as it is breathlessly entertaining.'' In the southernmost Los Angeles district of San Pedro, one of the world's busiest harbors, an unlikely pair of lovers are unwittingly caught between the two warring sides of the law. When Dinko Babich, a young longshoreman, delivers Lita Medina, a young Mexican dancer, from the harbor to a Hollywood nightclub, theirs lives are forever changed, as their love develops among the myriad cops and criminals who occupy the harbor. Suspense and tragedy are intertwined in the everyday life of the cops and residents of San Pedro Harbor, with the unflinching eye for detail and spot-on humor that only a master of the form like Joseph Wambaugh can provide. Their paths will cross with many colorful characters introduced in Wambaugh's acclaimed bestselling Hollywood Station series: the surfer cops known as "Flotsam and Jetsam", aspiring actor "Hollywood Nate" Weiss, young Britney Small, along with new members of the midwatch. Humor, love, suspense and tragedy are intertwined in the everyday life of the cops and residents of San Pedro Harbor, with the unflinching eye for detail and spot-on humor that only a master of the form like Joseph Wambaugh can provide "In the southernmost Los Angeles district of San Pedro, one of the world's busiest harbors, an unlikely pair of lovers are unwittingly caught between the two warring sides of the law amid the investigation of a horrifying human-trafficking ring. When Dinko Babich, a young longshoreman, delivers Lita Medina, a young Mexican dancer, from the harbor to a Hollywood nightclub, theirs lives are forever changed as the two are caught in the crosshairs of the multitude of cops and criminals, the law-abiding and the lawless, who occupy the harbor"-- Dust jacket