Dig it: Ellroy writes tight. Ellroy writes large. Ellroy vibes great lit—he's the Willie S. of noir. It's easy to elbow Ellroy, but that's only Continue reading »
Clipped, stylized, hard-nosed and repetitive, this novel cuts like a dark, 24-hour Beat poem and sounds like Jack Webb on crack. Ellroy's latest noir tale is full of his trademark violence, Continue reading »
The Demon Dog is back with a second volume of previously uncollected works (following 1999's Crime Wave
), most published during his stint as a Continue reading »
Narrator Hoye firmly nails young world-weary cop Bucky Bleichert in this audio version of Ellroy's 1987 crime novel. The flawed boxer-turned-lawman becomes obsessed with L.A.'s notorious Continue reading »
Ellroy concludes the scorching trilogy begun with 1995's American Tabloid
with a crushing bravura performance. As ever, his sentences are gems of Continue reading »
Ellroy’s narration of his memoir of how his mother’s brutal rape and murder molded him sexually and psychically is as utterly distinctive as anything as he has done. Full of vim and vigor, this Continue reading »
Based on a notorious, unsolved Los Angeles murder case, the central drama of this hard-boiled mysteryset in the late 1940sbegins when the body of Elizabeth Short, an engagingly beautiful and Continue reading »
Returning to Los Angeles a few years after World War II (the setting of his last novel, The Black Dahlia ), Ellroy has come up with an ambitious, enthralling melodrama painted on a broad, dark Continue reading »
Ellroy's ninth novel, set in 1950s Los Angeles, kicks off with a shoot-out between a rogue ex-cop and a band of gangsters fronted by a crooked police lieutenant. Close on the heels of this scene Continue reading »
Crime Wave: Reportage and Fiction from the Underside of L.A.
James Ellroy
Ellroy's obsessions--Tinseltown tabloid sleaze and his mother's murder--have fueled his writing and provided readers with countless indelible images, reams of trademark stuttergun prose and at least Continue reading »
An intricate procedural set in 1950s L.A. has crooked cops participating in a shoot-out with gangsters and in a precinct-house riot. According to PW , although ``even the most noble of the characters Continue reading »
Ellroy's clipped and compelling noir realism, so effectively plied in such novels as L.A . Confidential and The Black Dahlia , shows itself to comparable advantage in short form here. The pick of the Continue reading »
Crime novelist Ellroy (American Tabloid) was 10 in 1958 when his mother, a divorced nurse and closet alcoholic, was found strangled to death in a deserted schoolyard in California's San Gabriel Continue reading »
At one point in Ellroy's new mystery, a character wonders if the world is ""nothing but wimps, pimps, psychos and sex fiends,'' and by the end of this book the reader wonders, too. Estranged from his Continue reading »
Blacker than noir, this latest novel from the author of L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia is set in 1958 and features a dirty LAPD detective with a breathtaking mastery of corruption. Dave Continue reading »
Although it follows his L.A. Trilogy chronologically, Ellroy's visceral, tightly plotted new novel unfolds on a much wider stage, delivering a compelling and detailed view of the American underworld Continue reading »
Ellroy launches his second L.A. Quartet with a sprawling, uncompromising epic of crime and depravity, with admirable characters few and far between. The action spans about three weeks during December Continue reading »
Ellroy’s latest guide to the dark passages of Southern California history is a prequel to his Los Angeles Quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and Continue reading »
Neurosurgeon Schwartz’s excellent debut intersperses details about the history of brain surgery with background on what it’s like to perform the procedure. He traces Continue reading »
A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda
Carrie Rickey
Film critic Rickey delivers the definitive biography of French filmmaker Agnès Varda (1928–2019). Born in Belgium, Varda fled the country after the Nazis invaded in 1940 and Continue reading »
Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World
Casey Michel
Corruption on behalf of despots is the stock in trade of American lobbyists who work for foreign governments, according to this masterful exposé. Michel (American Kleptocracy), Continue reading »
Martin delivers a wrenching account of her relationship with her cousin, Ted Bundy, both before and after she learned he was a serial killer. In 1975, Martin was in the middle Continue reading »