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Reviews
of L.A. Rex
PRAISE FROM OTHER WRITERS "L.A. Rex is a stunning debut.
A gritty tale dripping with truth – it
could only have come from a writer who has lived the life. I can't
wait for the next one." "L.A. Rex is to the 21st century noir thriller what Apocalypse
Now was to 20th century war movies: vivid, powerful, imaginative,
unique. It melds a dreamlike fable with graphic reality, and showcases
a gifted new author with his own stylistic vision, cinematic descriptive
power, and natural writing chops that will astonish critics and public
alike." "Will Beall is as tough as they come, and L.A.
Rex is really good in all the right ways. It is intelligent, powerfully
written, and pulses with raw authenticity."
“Has the crackle and spark
of what once could easily imagine was life on the streets in 1998
Los Angeles, a city still on edge after the Rodney King riots...Beall
excels at painting a slang-rich world of cops and criminals.” “A kind of crime fighter’s bildungsroman…It’s
hard to imagine a better training ground for crime writing than police
work.” "Beall’s background shows in keenly observed
passages about the streets of South Central…Beall tosses cops, Crips, cartelistas, rappers,
and flamboyant lawyers into the plot and brings it to a rapid boil
with punchy and colorful prose...In the end, all you can do is applaud
Beall's audacity and keep flipping pages as fast as your eyes will
carry you...A brutal and dynamic novel." "L.A. Rex, a first novel by Los Angeles homicide
detective Will Beall, will feel familiar to fans of HBO's grim 'The
Wire' or of Richard Price's chilling sagas about urban gangs and
cops. But Beall has incredibly cranked up the depravity and violence
even higher...Beall can really write, the prose at once vivid and
rhythmic, the rich detail capturing the feel of the streets." “James Ellroy had better watch his back…Richard Price
had better get his game face on with Will Beall writing stuff this
good…Completely mesmerizing…vital and urgently real.” “A rip roaring good yarn that lets the tension of the streets
trickle into the reader’s mind, soon becoming like a vice grip,
and propelling the narrative forward with such precision and speed
that you can’t look away.” “Gripping…Beall spins a riveting tale of the L.A. streets
and the hard cases (both criminal and cop) who inhabit them…The
pace is breathtaking, the dialogue snappy and street-savvy. Beall
brings an insider’s sense of authenticity to the book.” “Harkening back to the crackling
prose and gimlet political eye of Wambaugh, and the underworld No Beast So Fierce veracity
of Edward Bunker, Beall delivers a fantastic debut novel. Skillfully
not over playing his hand, by avoiding the urge to pop off one grotesque
detail after another of everyday life on the beat with well sketched
chapters taking place in the past; a choice that provides subsequent
detail and depth, along with a chance for the reader to catch their
breath. Giving the novel a round, robust shape but most importantly,
contrast…This raises the book above the pack and makes L.A.
Rex one of the top novels of 2006.”
An Independent
Mystery Booksellers Association Bestseller "Delicate readers be forewarned--Will Beall's
gritty, gangland drama, L.A. Rex hits hard. The story pulls you down
hard and fast into a dark ultraviolent world of corruption where
hardcore gangbangers and dirty cops battle it out on the streets
of South Central. The fact that Beall is currently a cop in South
Central adds an interesting wrinkle--readers will find themselves
wondering (and worrying about) how much is true." “This debut is the real deal. Beall, an LA officer and former
Gang Squad member, has captured the feel of the street and the pace
of ‘the game’ like no one I have read before. Wambaugh
set the standard; Beall has kicked it up a notch…Beall captures
the pace and language of the street cop to perfection…This
is a must read.” “Beall, a real copy in the 77th, writes with the ring of truth
as he describes the violent subculture of L.A. and expores the reason
why America is such a violent country. Move over Wambaugh a new generation
of cop-writer has arrived and he’s really good. Extremely violent
like the world he inhabits, but he’ll keep you up all night.” “The best hard-boiled debut of the year.” “An engrossing, mesmerizing book. Beall has a powerful voice…so
compelling I was up to 2 am reading.”
“In his debut novel, L.A. Rex, Will
Beall writes like Joseph Wambaugh channeling Cormac McCarthy. Like
Wambaugh, Beall is an L.A. cop, who knows intimately the streets
that he writes about in this disturbing, but gripping novel of
avarice and ambition.” “An absolutely brilliant debut novel….In addition to
being a novelist, Beall is a copy in the heart of darkest South Central
LA—which lends a relatively unprecedented air of truth to a
book in this genre. Joseph Wambaugh started writing detective fiction
while he was still LAPD 30+ years ago, but I feel, and this is just
one man’s opinion, that he has become very far removed from
the reality of those streets so that his writing doesn’t ring
as true anymore. Beall picks up that gauntlet of truth and smashed
the shit out of it.” “Every so often, someone attempting a panomara gets it completely
right. With the studied eye of a scientist still willing to dirty
his hands in the field, Will Beall has given us a Los Angeles without
precedent. Precisely and brutally, he paints the colonies existing
in the petri dish that is our city. You dare not look away from the
faces strewn about his landscape…If you read one work of fiction
before the year is over, make it L.A. Rex.”
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L.A. REX IS PUBLISHED BY RIVERHEAD BOOKS, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN GROUP (USA)