Product Description

With the America's Cup sailing regattas coming to San Diego, water cops Mickey Fortney and his partner, Leeds, have their hands full with international yacht fans, tourists, con artists, and a gorgeous redhead who leads them along a bizarre criminal trail to murder. 150,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1112087 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-01
• Released on: 1996-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 293 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A plot to sabotage New Zealand's entry in the America's Cup regatta forms the premise for Wambaugh's latest police thriller, a slow-moving affair that nonetheless features the author's usual rough-and-tumble prose as well as an intriguing examination of both aquatic police work and the world of competitive yachting. The prime conspirator is Ambrose Lutterworth, the "Keeper of the Cup," an aging real estate agent and yachting enthusiast. Ambrose hopes to prevent the trophy from leaving its temporary home at the San Diego Yacht Club by using expensive call girl Blaze Duvall to coerce the city's harbor crane operator into damaging the powerful New Zealand boat in dry dock, ensuring an American victory. Blaze's conspicuous trail is picked up by a pair of harbor cops, Fortney and Leeds, who receive some vital assistance from a couple of vice cops. Wambaugh takes too long to develop Lutterworth's unimaginative scheme and to link an eventual murder to the posh world of the America's Cup. The sparks fly, however, when the sabotage plan unravels and an attempted blackmail results in another murder. The author's trademark sardonic writing is in full force here, and the police material is, as always, authentic, with the harbor cops' antics particularly entertaining. This may not be Wambaugh's high water mark, but it's not his low tide, either.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In Wambaugh's (The Golden Orange, Morrow, 1992) latest, San Diego cops investigate murder during the America's Cup.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Fun-loving cop-novelist Wambaugh (Finnegan's Week, 1993, etc.) centers his latest San Diego police procedural around the international America's Cup regatta off Mission Bay and, as ever, comes up with a taut tale larded with raunchy dialogue. Two stories intertwine to give Wambaugh plenty of rope for a sailboat suspenser set mostly on dry land. First come the adventures of redheaded Blaze Duvall, a call-girl masseuse who gets involved with snobby bachelor Ambrose Lutterworth Jr., a 63-year-old client who happens to be the Keeper of the Cup--now likely to go to the Australian sailing team, which clearly has the faster boats. Mother-haunted Ambrose loves the very costly Cup as if it were the Holy Grail and lures Blaze into helping him keep it: His plan is to wreck the swifter of the Aussie's two boats while it's in dry dock. Meanwhile, Blaze's speedballing buddy, street hooker Dawn Coyote, flees her pimp, Oliver Mantleberry, but not fast enough to avoid Oliver's knifeblade. When Dawn dies on Blaze's front walk and Blaze disappears, horny vice cop Letch Boggs and aging homicide detective Anne Zorn team up to nab the elusive Oliver. Mission Bay water cops Mick Fortney and his sidekick Leeds are seemingly meant to carry this tale, and they do come upon two bodies in the water (floaters), but their work on water or land has almost nothing to do with the plot's outcome--nor do they. Instead, these nonstop jokesters hang about bars where the Aussies blow off stress with booze and boasting. The author's descriptive powers get full play at last when the climax moves aboard a fabulous pleasure yacht. No dimming of Wambaugh's storytelling skills or flow of smut. But his cop raunch, while amusing, has begun to pale. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

wambaugh's scriptwriting is flawless
This is my second experience reading Wambaugh, the first being "The Golden Orange". Wambaugh's strength lies in his sharp, cynical, sarcastic and blackly humerous use of language. I laughed out loud at his witty and dark brand of humor. His command of the English language and cynical look at Americana seen through the eyes of cops and robbers is worth the price of admission alone. This novel works mostly through his style, and the plot is greatly enhanced through his wordplay. I learned more about Americas Cup racing than I ever wanted to know, yet was never bored throughout "Floaters". A lesser writer might not have been able to make such a plot work, since the finale is laced with coincedence and irony, yet Wambaugh's style more than makes up for any potentially lame plot twists. This is not to say that the plot is poor or predictable; it's neither. But the fact is that few writers would be able to pull off such a tale.

Floaters
This is just another example of Mr. Wambaugh's extroadinary ability to capture the reader's mind & put them into the character's phych. One almost has to feel sorry for the killer in as much as his thought's regarding the killing, cup and social face is hiliarious. Keeep them coming Mr. Wambaugh!!! Sierra Schoffstall, Columbia, SC

Not exactly typical
Being a fan of The Glitter Dome, Delta Star and his other works I was expecting a typical Wambaugh. This one wasn't. It struck me more as an Elmore Leonard with Wambaugh humor in it.

It was funny. It did make me laugh out loud causing stares for it seems America needs to get a good sense of humor. I would have been asking the title something like the woman in the Restaurant scene in Harry and Sally.

The plot revolves around saving the Americas Cup for the USA and the people that play a part in the crime and the people that effect the efforts of the police and the crime. The view switches between the leads. The cup itself is the main character not any one person. This can lead to thinking it is a slow plot or confusing. The talk of the cup and the racers reaches a point of boredom but Wambaugh himself writes into the book that no one else cares about this stuff just when you are about to say "Give the cup away."

Not your typical Wambaugh.