A toxic spill causes a lethal chain reaction for a San Diego cop in this “very funny” New York Times bestseller by the author of The Choirboys (Kirkus Reviews). Fin Finnegan, a San Diego police detective and wannabe actor heading straight for a midlife meltdown, is assigned a routine truck theft that turns into a toxic chemical spill, setting off a bizarre chain reaction of death and murder on … chain reaction of death and murder on both sides of the Mexican border. Fin is forced to team up with Nell Salter, a sexy female investigator, as well as an equally fetching US Navy investigator who wants to learn all that Fin can teach her—and that’s saying a lot. The New York Times Book Review called it “a frolic, a joy, a hoot, a riot of a book.” And Entertainment Weekly said, “superbly crafted and paced, deliciously funny, but fundamentally, as always, deadly serious.”
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The pacing is excellent, the story is riveting, and the characters come off of the page. Never guess until the last page how it ends.
The author is so enamored with his own wit, be it as it may, that he imbues all his main characters with his own voice. Gets pretty annoying for me. I’m sure some will enjoy it.
Wambaugh is always good. More a study of characters than his usual procedurals. Fun read.
Joseph Wambaugh novels are impregnable to critics’ negative barbs; the author is that good. I started out expecting to rate Finnegan’s Week at five stars and ended the same way. This novel is entertainment that fans of “cop” novels will like. Sure, there are some mysteries. Who would steal two thousand pair of specialized US Navy boots? Who killed the various characters, and what were the motives behind the deaths? (No spoiler, not all the deaths were intentional). What is HAZMAT, and why should you care? (OK, HAZMAT means hazardous materials and, much like climate change, you should care about terms associated with HAZMAT very much.)
Finnegan’s Week is for fun and entertainment. Most of the fun is contained in the snappy dialogue that takes place in the workshops associated with law enforcement. Squad rooms, briefing rooms, laboratories, and morgues all contribute to different types of humor. Viewers of CSI, Homicide Hunter, and NCIS may not believe this kind of humor exists or may not want to. How could the folks who protect us be so cynical? A brief reflection shows the logic of extreme cynicism.
Law enforcement professionals are everyday people with the same desires for a family, security, and a good life as the general population. They do have one great motto that is repeated often no matter the level of the force; municipal, county, state, or federal. Our goal: Everyone goes home safe tonight. Law enforcement officials (LEF) deal with a variety of smart, intelligent, imaginative individuals who seek a shortcut to riches. Schemes are intricate and sometimes illegal, plans that can ignore morality and exhibit horrors the general population hopefully will not meet. This almost daily exposure to aberrations which exists in an overall context of 24 hours per day watchfulness for personal security results in some very dark humor. Outsiders can be shocked. Readers can be entertained. Finnegan’s Week contains a lot of dark humor; it is realistic.
Finbar Brendan Finnegan is a wannabe actor who did NOT go to Hollywood and spend a lot of time bussing tables while waiting to be discovered. Instead, he became a police detective who worked a routine, dreary day while waiting to be seen. Only five years away from a police pension, things were not looking good. The mirror told him he was aging faster than the number of employment opportunities. Aging, humor, and dark humor propel this novel.
Jules Temple occupies the ne’er do well spot. Son of a wealthy father, Dad thought giving him a monthly allowance for the rest of his son’s life should do the trick of forcing maturity on the wild son. If he couldn’t survive on a meager allowance, Jules would have to work. The son, a wastrel, found his future in the Waste Management industry, an ever-developing sector that came with a faster developing regulatory bureaucracy. Illegal shortcuts meant big profits but could be more dangerous than the inherently insecure products being transported to designated dumpsites. Wasn’t there a closer, concealed stream nearby? Jules would not go so far, but he would falsify shipping documents so that waste could be dumped in sites not certified for the level of hazard indicated on shipping labels.
Once some regulations were ignored, the door was open to further abuse of annoying rules. Why pay legal workers when workers du jour could be paid in cash? The workers could further deliver material to other owners less compliant with the law who would kickback cash payments to Jules. Life was good, and Jules was getting rich, so rich that he could legitimately sell the business and retire (before getting caught.)
Abel Durazo and Shelby Pate were two drivers for Jules who saw an opportunity when they became aware Jules was going to sell Green Earth Hauling and Disposal. In one of their final runs into Mexico, they would steal a shipment of US Navy shoes, throw it on the back of the truck carrying mislabeled waste, sell the shoes to an agreeable reseller in Mexico, sell the truck to another entrepreneur, and report the theft to Jules. Jules might be able to file for insurance reimbursement. To be safe, Abel and Shelby did not inform Jules of their plan.
Abel and Shelby are favorites of the law enforcement community. They are stupid and high on alcohol or drugs most of the time. Little known to the public, law enforcement routinely waits for these types of evildoers to catch themselves. Sometimes, in the case of imminent public danger, there must be a chase, as in Finnegan’s Week.
Fin will be able to raise himself from the doldrums of being unable to get an acting job. He will team up with Detective Bobbie Ann Doggett (Bad Dog) who is not a police detective but is young and cute in a stout sort of way, and Nell Salter, a DA Investigator. Nell might be prettier than Bobbie, maybe due to the previously broken nose, but her real appeal for Fin is the shared relationship experiences. Fin had al least three ex-wives and looked upon marriage as a hobby. This scared Fin about Nell; he was not looking for the next adventure. Nell had had lots of short-term relationships, one bad long-term relationship, and was suffering from relationship fatigue.
These personal concerns had to give way to a search for a boy with ringworm.
Finnegan’s Week is fun. I don’t list examples of the hilarious humor because what is funny to me might not be entertaining to less demented readers. Finnegan’s Week retails for USD 8.99 on Amazon. I purchased the Kindle edition for USD 0.99. It is unusual for me to find a 352-page novel that I read in one session. Joseph Wambaugh is good.
Another good one from Joseph Wambaugh.
Just like all of his books, fantastic
Wambaugh is the best at cop stories.
All of his books are fun, entertaining, and easy to read. As a retired cop I can enjoy his humor and his characters mirror cops I knew.
This is my fifth Wambaugh book. Some of his other works were better but still a good read.
Not his usual whimsical prose although it had its moments.
Clever characters wrapped around an interesting story about incompetent thieves and a mix of law enforcement funny folks. Easy and entertaining read.
Enjoyed the characters in this mystery, complete with their flaws. Story developed in parallel to character interactions. Crime was multi-faceted, and the resolution was intriguing, and held my attention.
This is typical Waumbaugh…not as good as The Choirboys or The Onion Field, but good. It’s a fun read with a typically humorous, slightly burnt out cop paired with a couple of female leads. I enjoyed it.
I liked the characters
Made me wonder why I stopped reading Wambaugh. Going to find more by him I didn’t read
The first book by this author I’ve ever started and didn’t finish. I found nothing to grab my attention and the characters were rather week.
I did not really enjoy this book. I was quite disappointed. It is hard to believe that The Onion Field and this substandard crime procedural were both written by Joseph Wambaugh. The dialogue in FW was atrocious and unrealistic. The navy heroin was unbelievable and the rest of the cast pathetic. Look elsewhere for entertainment, this is not where it’s at.
Crazy as all get out
Lighter and fluffier, hence less mature, than his usual.
Classic Wambaugh. Read this. You’re welcome!