James Ellroy&039s 5 Best Books – Scotts Blog

using a troubled adolescence (the usual things growing up: mother murdered, b&e-filled homeless stints where he stole girls’ panties, forgetting his own name after extended bouts of substance abuse) as a platform launch, writes the American wordsmith. as a man possessed, taking crime fiction to new heights (or depths).

Think of retro Angels vividly depicted. famous hollywood stars living vivaciously. Working angles of the policemen in conflict. murders of unimaginable brutality. the lines of good and evil become blurred. then, as ellroy’s style evolved; staccato sharp sentences. shenanigans, shortcuts and lucrative scams. jazz clubs, dive bars and steakhouses. stucco apartments, mansions and slums of beverley hills. and of course, it’s all, ‘off the record, in qt and very quiet’.

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5: brown’s requiem

Ellroy’s first published novel is almost unrecognizable in the style he uses today, but it clearly sows the seeds of what is to come. set in a 1980s la, it tells a ‘relatively’ simple story of a classic booze hound private eye working on a rigged case. albeit with golf caddies, classical music and a trip to mexico just in case.

4: black dahlia

Upping the ante considerably, Ellroy’s seventh book was based on the infamous real-life and still unsolved Black Dahlia case, where a pretty young Hollywood wannabe was brutally murdered. The author’s fictional version of events revolves around two police officers who are initially rivals and even exchange blows in the boxing ring, before teaming up to try to solve the case. but that’s just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the twists, turns, and depravities to come.

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3: the confidential

Like the book, the movie version of The Confidential is about three cops (a recurring theme in Ellroy’s work) who are, broadly speaking, trying to solve a massacre at a late-night café. to be fair, the film makes an excellent attempt at capturing the 1950s era and the uncanny depth of the text. but with a million additional plotlines, the written version sinks its claws into you, takes over your life, and the next thing you know, it’s 4 a.m. in the morning and you have to work shortly. though being awake is probably better than those dudley smith themed nightmares.

2: the big nothing

Somewhat overlooked because The Confidential became so big, The Big Nowhere precedes its more famous sequel and lays the groundwork for Ellroy’s signature prose. Set against the real-life backdrop of McCarthy’s communist witch hunts and the Sleepy Lagoon murders, it features Ellroy’s classic lineup of three ‘heroes’, crossing swords with one another, while characters like Mickey Cohen, howard hughes and other real people play small parts in the background. Speeding like a roller coaster with no brakes, the novel is a super powerful, dark masterpiece that grabs you by the balls and turns them into sun-dried sultanas.

1: American tabloid

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for her magnus opus, ellroy played away from home for the first time. With a nod to Don Delilo’s pound, the American tabloid follows the intertwined paths of three men, but instead of being bound by angels, the characters are unleashed on American history from 1958-1963.

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Featuring the mob, fbi, cia, frank sinatra, jfk, rfk, fidel castro, j edgar hoover, bay of pigs, new orleans, washington, chicago, and much, much more, the book rewrites the American history in an indecipherable flow of violence, calculated friendships, and betrayals on a staggering scale.

The novel turned out to be the first volume in Ellroy’s epic “Underworld Trilogy,” which eventually covers 15 years of unprecedented bloodshed and scandal. hoooooooooooooowwww!

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