L.A. Confidential - Softcover

Ellroy, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446674249 ISBN 13: 9780446674249

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 1997

Synopsis

L.A. Confidential is epic "noir", a crime novel of astonishing detail and scope written by the bestselling author of The Black Dahlia. A horrific mass murder invades the lives of victims and victimizers on both sides of the law. And three lawmen are caught in a deadly spiral, a nightmare that tests loyalty and courage, and offers no mercy, grants no survivors.

About this title

Review:

James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential is film-noir crime fiction akin to Chinatown, Hollywood Babylon, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Jim Thompson. It's about three tortured souls in the 1950s L.A.P.D.: Ed Exley, the clean-cut cop who lives shivering in the shadow of his dad, a legendary cop in the same department; Jack Vincennes, a cop who advises a Police Squad- like TV show and busts movie stars for payoffs from sleazy Hush-Hush magazine; and Bud White, a detective haunted by the sight of his dad murdering his mom.

Ellroy himself was traumatized as a boy by his party-animal mother's murder. (See his memoir My Dark Places for the whole sordid story.) So it is clear that Bud is partly autobiographical. But Exley, whose shiny reputation conceals a dark secret, and Vincennes, who goes showbiz with a vengeance, reflect parts of Ellroy, too.

L.A. Confidential holds enough plots for two or three books: the cops chase stolen gangland heroin through a landscape littered with not-always-innocent corpses while succumbing to sexy sirens who have been surgically resculpted to resemble movie stars; a vile developer--based (unfairly) on Walt Disney-- schemes to make big bucks off Moochie Mouse; and the cops compete with the crooks to see who can be more corrupt and violent. Ellroy's hardboiled prose is so compressed that some of his rat-a-tat paragraphs are hard to follow. You have to read with attention as intense as his—and that is very intense indeed. But he richly rewards the effort. He may not be as deep and literary as Chandler, but he belongs on the same top-level shelf.

From the Publisher:

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK, BY JAMES ELLROY

"Nobody in this generation matches the breadth and depth of Ellroy's way with noir."
-- Detroit News

"Ellroy is a unique voice in American fiction and L.A. Confidential, his premier creation, is destined to be a classic."
-- Jonathan Kellerman

"A blood poet who writes as chain saws crank, Ellroy has vigorously redefined the well-shadowed turf of contemporary crime fiction."
-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Ellroy spares no sensibilities."
-- Los Angeles Times

"L.A. Confidential is almost seamless, and demands attention for its monstrously original style and evocation of Hollywood in the '50s." --San Diego Union

About this edition

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0446674249
• ISBN 13: 9780446674249
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496