|
Beall has been a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department for over eight years. He is currently assigned to the 77th
Division. His assignments have included patrol and the anti-gang unit, and recently
he began working homicide.
When asked about why he started writing, Beall said, “I've
always been a compulsive scribbler, writing everything down that I see and feel. If I had more artistic talent, maybe I would
sketch things. I've been doing this forever, since long before I came onto the job. But when I made the decision to become
a cop, I actually decided that I had to put that behind me. My first week on the job, every night when I came home from work,
I would just talk to my girlfriend at the time, until two in the morning, about everything that happened all day. So, within
a week of working in 77th, I realized I needed to write about this. And I started filling up notebooks and legal pads. I don't
remember exactly when I decided to write the book, but somewhere along the line I had this idea of doing a story about this
kid who was just starting out.”
In Beall’s debut novel, L.A. Rex, “As far as everyone in the squad room knows, Ben Halloran is completely fresh to the streets of
the 77th Division, a soft kid from the West Side who's decided to become a cop and just happened to draw the hardest neighborhood
in L.A. But demons from Ben's complicated past catch up with him-and his tough, oddly principled Daryl Gates-era partner,
Miguel Marquez-all too quickly. From the moment Ben and Marquez hit the streets together, they're pulled into a web of ultra-violent
corruption and retribution involving hardcore Crip gangbangers and tagalong gangsta-rap gloryhounds, L.A.'s Mexican Mafia,
sleazy celebrity defense attorneys, and dirty cops with distinctly self-serving definitions of law enforcement. Ben is forced to choose among father figures and apparent destinies-trying to obey (and discover) his
own moral principles as well as his desperate animal instinct simply to stay alive.”
|
