Finnegan's Week by Joseph Wambaugh

Fin Finnegan, a San Diego police detective and wannabe actor heading straight for a midlife meltdown, is assigned a routine truck theft that turns into a toxic chemical spill, setting off a bizarre chain reaction of death and murder on both sides of the Mexican border. Fin is forced to team up with Nell Salter, a sexy female investigator, as well as an equally fetching U.S. Navy investigator who wants to learn all that Fin can teach her—and that’s saying a lot. The New York Times Book Review called it “A frolic, a joy, a hoot, a riot of a book.”  And Entertainment Weekly said, “Superbly crafted and paced, deliciously funny, but fundamentally, as always, deadly serious.”