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Portrait of Joseph Wambaugh Foto: Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images (2006)

Sample of authors

Wambaugh, Joseph

Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. is an American author and former detective sergeant. He is best known for his police procedural novels in which he skilfully combines fact and fiction. Most of his books are based on more or less real cases as well as his own experience as a police officer and detective. Wambaugh has also published best-selling non-fiction books about murder investigations, many of...

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Boysie (Brian) Oakes

Gender: Male

He is recruited as a spy by mistake, and is regarded as tough, ruthless and bloodthirsty. In actual fact, he is an easy-going, forgetful and cowardly mummy’s boy, who hires gangsters to carry out the acts of violence he is ordered to do. This doesn’t prevent Brian ‘Boysie’ Oakes from making a career. It is simplest to describe him as a parody of James Bond, and John Gardner has written a suite of...

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