In this fascinating police novel, Joseph Wambaugh mixes the think-tank world of Nobel Prize chemistry with the under- world of cops and killers. In October 1981 a Soviet submarine carrying nuclear-tipped torpedoes ran aground in restricted Swedish waters. The story made world headlines. But homicide detective Mario Villalobos and the other cops at Rampart ,Station, Los Angeles Police Department, had more immediate things to worry about: Why was a street- walker named Missy Moonbeam pushed from the roof of the Wonderland Hotel? How come her trick book contained the telephone number of Caltech, one of the world s finest institutions of scientific learning? How did The Bad Czech, the meanest, maddest cop in the division, end up with a dead man s credit card instead of his own?