Violent Ward. Len Deighton

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      Copyright

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

       The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      This paperback edition 2011

      First published in Great Britain by

      HarperCollinsPublishers in 1993

      Copyright © Len Deighton 1993

      Introduction copyright © Pluriform Publishing Company BV 2011

      Cover designer’s note © Arnold Schwartzman 2011

      Len Deighton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      VIOLENT WARD. Copyright © Len Deighton 1993. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      Source ISBN: 9780006479017

       EBook Edition © JULY 2011 ISBN: 9780007450879 Version: 2017-08-10

      Contents

       Cover

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Cover designer’s note

      Introduction

      1

      ‘There’s a woman sitting on my window ledge,’ I said…

      2

      That was some bash, that party for Petrovitch. The little…

      3

      I drove back from the Petrovitch bash with a lot…

      4

      Fancy Goldie remembering our breakfasts in Tommy’s. It’s one of…

      5

      I’d had it too long to trade it in. Maybe…

      6

      It wasn’t like staying with friends. There was a sort…

      7

      Flying back from Colorado was not a pleasure for me,…

      8

      I went home to Woodland Hills and shuffled through some…

      9

      Next day was Sunday. From the very back of my…

      10

      Budd’s party was not the sort of Hollywood celebration that…

      11

      When my next-door neighbors, the Klopstocks, had people over, they…

      12

      My secretary, the indomitable Magda Huth, came running out of…

      13

      A week later a call from Felix Chiaputti brought a…

      14

      Petrovitch had a place up on Hillcrest, where the folks…

      15

      The trial of the policemen accused of beating Rodney King…

      16

      Like most of the city’s inhabitants, I spent many of…

      About the Author

      Other Books by Len Deighton

      About the Publisher

      Cover designer’s note

      Prompted by seeing the renderings of my two murals for Cunard’s new ship, Queen Elizabeth, Len Deighton suggested that I illustrate some of the covers of this next quartet of re-issues. I am delighted to be given the opportunity to draw once again, as it has been well over thirty years since my days as a regular illustrator for the Sunday Times.

      It is amazing to think that it is also nearly twenty years since the 1992 Los Angeles riots, an event which looms large in this book. When first reading Violent Ward, it struck a chord with my wife and me as we had just moved into our new apartment in Hollywood when the riots took place.

      On the first night we were awoken by loud shouting: ‘Get out, get out, your building is on fire!’ The warning came from a police officer who was banging his night-stick against our building’s wall. In the alley behind us were a couple of LAPD black-and-white patrol cars, and I could hear an officer speaking on his radio urging the fire department to come as quickly as possible. Meanwhile my wife, wielding a garden hose, attempted to douse the flames that were engulfing our neighbouring garages.

      The next night, along with several neighbours armed to the teeth, we formed a vigilante watch on the roof of our remaining garage. Apart from the sounds of a stray cat I am pleased to report that it was an uneventful night.

      In the morning I visited Samy’s, the professional camera store across from our home, to purchase a few rolls of film in order to record the damage of the previous day. A couple of hours later, while sitting at my desk, I heard three loud explosions. Looking out of the window, I saw an enormous mushroom-cloud rising up from the camera store, which had been torched. It appears that their large stock of photographic chemicals were responsible for the enormity of the explosions.

      The following morning I ventured to the scene of the crime to discover the burnt-out shop front strewn with the remnants of expensive cameras, including a gold Leica that СКАЧАТЬ