LAPD HOLLYWOOD PRECINCT
LAPD Hollywood Precinct
Steve Garcia
A police procedural series following the murder investigations of the Homicide Team in the Hollywood Precinct. Focusing chiefly on a newly promoted detective, Salvador Reyes, this series explores the glamour and the grit of Hollywood society where aspirations – and lives – can be easily snuffed out and where the crimes can be as colorful as the region’s most famous industry.
Continuity: Place (the Hollywood environs) and character (the members of the Homicide team).
1. Homicide in the Hills
When an up-and-coming porn director, Zane Kowalski, is bludgeoned to death in his home, Detective Salvador Reyes and his partner Philippa Wallace suspect that it was a robbery gone bad. Captain Siley wants the case solved quickly, as the Hollywood press are breathing down the department’s neck after recent failings.
As the homicide team investigates, they discover that Kowalski was on the cusp of a controversial deal involving a new distributor, a jealous business partner, an arch-rival, and a bitter struggle between two actresses - a veteran of the business and a starlet with tattered dreams. Several had motive and means to kill Kowalski.
However, when they discover that Kowalski was a paedophile, the evidence points to a killer not from Kowalski’s world, but the husband of his immigrant cleaner.
UK publication: August 2008
2. Valley of Vice
When a body is found burnt on a studio lot, Detectives Reyes and Wallace identify him as Bartholomew Pearl, a man who should by all accounts be in jail for shooting a Robbery Detective called Robert Cresner. His death is shortly followed by the apparent suicide of a city official, Theodore Simons. Investigating why Pearl was released, the detectives discover more about Pearl’s past: his history of intimidation and a fraudulent relationship with Simons, offering the official kick-backs in return for building projects in the Hollywood area.
The Force Investigation Division, meanwhile, think that the deaths are connected with a bent cop in the department, and Cresner becomes suspect number one. Reyes and Wallace discover links also between the deceased man and the long-serving detective Ray Brooks. When they find photos showing one of Pearl’s business rivals in a compromising position, blackmail looks like a credible motive.
Finally, it’s detectives Wagner and Kahn who come up with the crucial clue to crack the case. While seconded to Vice on a prostitution sting, a murder occurs which links the blackmail photos and other deaths. Suddenly the killer, a greedy senior cop, is clear, and it’s a race against time to prevent him killing again.
UK publication: October 2008
