It's the early 1950s Hollywood where organized crime is taking hold. Bud White, Ed Exley, and Jack Vincennes are three vastly different members of the LAPD. White is the epitome of the muscle, he, who, acting more on emotion, uses his fists before he asks questions in exacting his brand of justice. He is especially protective of women victims, potential or actual. Of the types, his mentality most closely matches that of Captain Dudley Smith, the two, among others, who systematically corral and rough up the foot soldiers in organized crime to show them who's boss in town. The son of a famed detective who was killed by an unknown assailant on the job, Exley is by-the-books, none of the beat cops and detectives liking him for willing to rat out what he sees as corruption on the force. Exley is, however, politically savvy and knows how to play the system to his advantage. Vincennes is the slick cop who likes the glamour of Hollywood. As such, he most enjoys his role as technical advisor on the police television show Badge of Honor. He is also in an unofficial partnership with sleazy reporter Sid Hudgens of the tell-all tabloid magazine Hush-Hush, Hudgens digging up dirt for potential busts on minor celebrities while Vincennes allows him to cover exclusively the busts themselves, which often includes titillating photos in being at the right place at the right time. Many on the force, including the three, are involved in investigating a mass murder at the Night Owl Diner. Despite Exley being the first first responder on the scene, Smith takes over as lead of the investigation due to its high profile, which is only ramped up with the discovery of one of the victims. In the process, White is reacquainted with Lynn Bracken, a prostitute with who he becomes obsessed partly in that sense of protection he has for women. She works for wealthy Pierce Patchett whose service specializes in celebrity lookalikes, Bracken his "Veronica Lake". With the Night Owl Diner case solved and thus closed, White, Exley, and Vincennes all come back to the case from three different directions in they each believing not all that appears on the surface is the truth. Their individual investigations may bind them together or further tear them apart.—Huggo