The Patrolman (Detective Lacey, #1)

Los Angeles, 1941. Theft, murder, extortion, Communism – a day in the life of Officer Jake Lacey, LAPD. He's young and honest, still learning the ropes and hasn't quite figured out what it means to be a cop. Then the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service bombs Pearl Harbor and America goes haywire. Fear and racial prejudice consumes L.A. – cue the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans on the Pacific Coast.

Following the armed robbery at The Hollywood Bank & Financial Trust, fortunes are made and lives are ruined in the City of Angels: a last attempt at love cut down by the power of a bottle, a mother turning her back on her family in the pursuit of manifest destiny, a contract killer navigating political subterfuge before it catches up to kill him.

In Stapleton’s first novel featuring Lacey, the LAPD officer is taken from Western Morocco to the Halls of Justice as he traces the true identity of The Zoot Suit Strangler.

Though this novel is a fiction, certain elements of the plot have been lifted from real life events and implemented within the historical time frame of 1941-1943.  Some of these events and happenings are not for the faint hearted - please, in all earnest, consider this a trigger warning.    

Cherry

The Patrolman - #1 1937

It was one of those signs that were very popular at the start of the century, Thomson saw them plenty as a kid growing up in Iowa.

The Patrolman - #2 The Patrolman (Part II)

There was the whip and crack of a gunshot, a windowpane shattering.

The Patrolman - #3 White Lights, Bright Sirens (Part I)

The killer, known within his professional circle as Mr. Slate, moved briskly westward along 7 th Street.

The Patrolman - #3 White Lights, Bright Sirens (Part II)

The look on her face was of confusion. The look on her face when she saw the gun in his hand was of surprise. The look on her face when he spun it round in the air at Tom Maher was of terror.

The Patrolman (2) - Prologue

Second draft of completed first novel - The Patrolman. "North Spring ought to be the safest area in L.A."

The Patrolman (2) - Chapter I: The Patrolman (Part I)

Second draft of completed first novel - The Patrolman. "At exactly 10:00 a.m., when the woman stopped to catch her breath, there was a thundering in her ears."

The Patrolman (2) - Chapter I: The Patrolman (Part II)

Second draft of completed first novel - The Patrolman. "The confrontation seemed to last just a few seconds."

The Patrolman (2) - Chapter I: The Patrolman (Part III)

Second draft of first completed novel - The Patrolman. "He had the distinct impression that this had all happened before and that it would all happen again."

The Patrolman (2) - Chapter I: The Patrolman (Part IV)

Second draft of first completed novel - The Patrolman. "Three bullets had passed cleanly through the door."