The Golden Orange

When forty-year-old cop Winnie Farlowe lost his  shield, he lost the only protection he had. Ever  since, he's been fighting a bad back, fighting the  bottle, fighting his conscience. But now he's in  for a special fight. Never before has he come up  against anyone like Tess Binder. She's a  stunningly beautiful, sexually spirited three-time  divorcee from Newport Beach—capital of California's  Golden Orange, where wallets are fat, bikinis are  skimpy, and cosmetic surgery is one sure way to a  billionaire's bank account. Nearly a year ago Tess  Binder's father washed up on the beach with a bullet  in his ear. The coroner called it suicide, but to  Tess it means the fear of her own fate. And  Winnie Farlowe is a man willing to follow wherever she  leads—straight into the juicy pulp of the Golden  Orange, a world where money is everything, but  nothing adds up . . . where death and chicanery  flourish amidst ranches, mansions, and yachting  parties. In his long-awaited new novel, best-selling  author Joseph Wambaugh combines harrowing suspense,  scathing humor, and a moving portrait of a man on  the brink of  self-destruction.

When forty-year-old cop Winnie Farlowe lost his  shield, he lost the only protection he had. Ever  since, he's been fighting a bad back, fighting the  bottle, fighting his conscience. But now he's in  for a special fight. Never before has he come up  against anyone like Tess Binder. She's a  stunningly beautiful, sexually spirited three-time  divorcee from Newport Beach—capital of California's  Golden Orange, where wallets are fat, bikinis are  skimpy, and cosmetic surgery is one sure way to a  billionaire's bank account. Nearly a year ago Tess  Binder's father washed up on the beach with a bullet  in his ear. The coroner called it suicide, but to  Tess it means the fear of her own fate. And  Winnie Farlowe is a man willing to follow wherever she  leads—straight into the juicy pulp of the Golden  Orange, a world where money is everything, but  nothing adds up . . . where death and chicanery  flourish amidst ranches, mansions, and yachting  parties. In his long-awaited new novel, best-selling  author Joseph Wambaugh combines harrowing suspense,  scathing humor, and a moving portrait of a man on  the brink of  self-destruction.

Publishers Weekly

In this comic and deeply moving story, Wambaugh holds the reader a willing hostage to events in the bibulous, rowdy, daring life of Winston (Winnie) Farlowe. When an injury ends his police career in California's Orange County, Winnie works at odd jobs--and indulges in vodka-inspired pranks. On probation after his latest escapade, the anti-hero avoids the place where prudence might have led him, an AA meeting, and instead rushes to join drinking buddies at a favorite saloon. There Tess Binder, an alluring divorcee, seeks the notorious ex-cop; she wines him, dines him and takes him to bed. Although both lovers are in their 40s, and survivors of broken unions, Tess belongs to a world as foreign to Winnie's as Tibet: the Newport Harbor's ultra-rich yachting crowd. The poor guy can't believe his luck, but trusts in his lady's ardent love, never suspecting the scam she plans for Win nie him as she holds him in thrall. The action quickens, rushing to a stupendous climax that concludes a novel virtually sure to be hailed as Wambaugh's best. BOMC alternate; first serial to Los Angeles Magazine. (May)