The Secrets of Harry Bright

I first read this about this book in a feature article in Los Angles Magazine in 1984. I later read this book while spending the weekend at the Marriott Rancho Las Plamas Resort in Rancho, Mirage, Ca. near where this book takes place. The book focuses on a San Diego Police Officer who looses his son in the PSA jet crash in San Diego and escapes to a desrt town to escape San Diego and to still be near his ex wife who lives in Rancho Mirage in an exclusive Country Club.The Main Character of this novel "Black Sid" gets an all expense paid vaction to Palm Springs to investigate a murder of a Millionares son. Black Sid like Harry Bright and the millionare all have lost their son.The plot is very captivating and well worth the reading. Just be careful, it may inspire you enough to go to the Coachella Valley area and fall in love with the desert and buy a home in Rancho Mirage like I did!

I've read ALL of Wambaugh's books, and this is one of his best works. The characters are well developed, they are so real and vivid. As usual, he includes just the right fine character details, you end up knowing the players so well that you feel like you've known them all your life. And I am sure there is nobody (that did't cheat and read the end first) that could have ever guessed how this story plays out.

Wambaugh again combines a real mystery plot with some truly humorous anecdotes pulled right from real-life police work. Having been familiar with this line of work, and the locale in which this book is set, I found it a good read - and one that made me laugh out loud at times. Maybe we all have our "Secret..." as does Harry Bright.

I have not read much fiction in my lifetime. I'm just learning how, these days. Joseph Wambaugh is giving me an appreciation of reading fiction for pure joy. I enjoyed this book. Laughed out loud many times too. The ending left me deeply moved. If you like who-dunnits, you will enjoy this one. What prompted me to read something of Wambaugh's was "Echoes In The Darkness," which I read many years ago. I thought it was a good read also. I have some personal interest and knowledge of that book's subject.

I've read all of Wambaugh's books and impatiently wait for each new one. "The Secrets Of Harry Bright" is probably the least known of his books, but it's the one that keeps haunting me. The "secrets" that are finally revealed in a stunning conclusion are indeed deeply moving and, years later, still gnaw at me.