Adopting for the first time in his career an omniscient point of view, James Ellroy describes two destinies meant to meet for a deadly encounter. Both men have suffered a traumatic sexual experience in their teen days. Lloyd Hopkins has become the best criminal investigator of the Los Angeles Police Department and spends his life protecting "the Innocence". On the contrary, "The Poet" has developed a serial killer syndrome and murders young women, repeating indefinitely the same vengeance scheme.

Unlike Fred Underhill, the main character of CLANDESTINE, Ellroy's precedent book, Lloyd Hopkins doesn't consider his job as redemptive, he simply sees it as the most important thing in his life and will therefore lose his wife. He is a missionary to whom to be the best means to be alone, in his job and in his life.

I've liked a lot the way James Ellroy compares the psychology of his protagonists who have to react in front of the same situations. I also remember very well the shock I had when I discovered BLOOD ON THE MOON in 1985 ; it was the first time in my life as a reader that I had the feeling that a thriller could be also literature.

A book for your library.

"American Tabloid" focuses on the mafia's role in the election of JFK, the Bay of Pigs, and the JFK assasination. As in all of Ellroy's books, no one gets away clean. Pete Boudurant, mob bagman and muscle; Kemper Boyd, FBI agent, CIA operative, looking out only for number one; and Ward J. Little, an FBI agent with a bizzare love/hate obsession with the Kennedy's. These ruthless men and their dealings provide the framework for one of the most brutal, ambitious novels ever written.

Ellroy has finally perfected his staccatto prose that he dabbled with in "LA Confidential" and experimented with openly in "White Jazz". The effect is like a literary high, as the book manages to develop several complex charchters with 50's/60's slang and short sentances. The book picks up quickly and never lets up. This book turned me onto the world of James Ellroy, and any reader with an interest in crime fiction needs to read this. Ellroy's second masterpiece, after "LA Confidential".

Ellroy creates a truly memorable cast of characters, including the unforgettable Kemper Boyd - Kennedy family insider aspirant - and Pete Bondurant - rock-hard extortionist, bag-man, killer - and he sets them loose in a wonderland of early 1960s American mayhem: J. Edgar Hoover's diabolic machinations; the Bay of Pigs; the apex of Mafia power. And all the events, all the characters, roar ceaselessly if unconsciously toward a singular end - the assassination of JFK.

Fantastic book. Strongly recommended.

This book is tremendous -- I'm so glad that I decided to pick up "L.A. Confidential" (my first Ellroy novel) a few months ago. Since then, I've read six more, including "American Tabloid." I have to say that it runs a CLOSE second to "L.A. Confidential," which I'm partial to probably only because it was my first experience with Ellroy.

"American Tabloid" was fascinating to me, partly because (since I'm only a teenager) I'm unfamiliar with most of the events of the 1950s that the book refers to. This gave me a crash course in recent American history and made it a hell of a lot more exciting, jaded, cynical, and distorted than any textbook possibly could. "American Tabloid" shows us a view of the Kennedys that sharply contrasts the reverent adoration of today's America. The other reason I was fascinated by "American Tabloid" was because of Ellroy's great characters -- the three main characters (Ward, Kemper, and Pete) undergo drastic transformations throughout the novel, making them alternately despicable and likable. Like his other works, the character development is this novel's greatest strength!

This is a fantastic read -- absolutely unforgettable and compelling. It's a must-read for the Ellroy fan! If you liked his take on L.A., you'll definitely like his take on the great U.S.A. I can't wait for the next two of this trilogy!!!

Ellroy's genius lies in his development of plot and characters. This novel is wildly different from the movie and its screenplay. The screenplay was a masterpiece, simply because Ellroy's novel is basically unfilmable in its present state. The novel is too dense, too dark, and too complex to make a movie that makes any sense within time constraints. Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson deserve considerable credit for taking this mammoth novel and condensing, stripping away plot lines and characters by the dozen. Some of the changes they made were masterful, some detract from the overall impact of the film. Ellroy's fixation is on characters. He has many of them, all deeply constructed. No character is without flaws. The character most interesting in this maze is Jack Vincennes, the smart detective whose life takes a variety of turns throughout the novel. It should be mentioned the novel is ABSOLUTELY nothing like the movie. The movie takes place during months; the book takes 7 years to complete its saga. The character of Jack Vincennes in particular is investigated much more in depth through Ellroy's version. The matter of Ed Exley's father, the involvement of Hollywood, and a Hispanic woman named Inez Soto, all missing from the movie, are central characters to this novel.

Somehow, Ellroy keeps all these characters straight. He has a shocking conclusion, and truly keeps a reader riveted. At its dullest, L.A. Confidential can be a confusing mess, but Ellroy always sprinkles scenes of savage violence and brutality to waken the reader. It must be said that this is not a novel for the faint-of-heart. Ellroy exposes the bigotry of 1950's Los Angeles through its hatred of blacks, homosexuals, and other minorities. This, combined with plots on smut, rape, murder, and the like, make this a book which is very powerful, graphic, and brutal. Ellroy's style is not beautiful, but rather shocking. He tries to stun the reader into submission, using very little description but rather blunt, graphic passages to get his point across. His only distinctive writing style is his use of newspaper clippings to tell about 10% of his story: the method is remarkably effective, since it diverts the reader from the profane, blunt, and direct writing of Ellroy just enough to keep the reader's sanity.

This is not an easy book by any means. Its language is very difficult, for it is colloquial profanity, mixed with language so graphic that the book takes on a dirty, forbidden tone. Its positives, however, far outweigh its negatives. It is truly a work of art, not graceful, but brutally intelligent. The plotlines are brimming with inspiration and rich color, the characters are distinctive and memorable, and the conclusion is a devastatingly pure and noble ending. Ellroy is a master of writing, and during most of the book, it shows. He is inspired at the end, taking his myriad of loose ends and combining them into one glorious plot that leaves the reader in awe.

The trick is getting to the end. The plot lines are wickedly confusing; Ellroy challenges the reader to keep with his pace. Moreover, the action is spread out over a long period of time. Many characters, though provided for color, are expendable, and it is easy to see why Hanson and Helgeland condensed the novel so much. It is quite difficult to get to the end of this book while understanding all of the numerous happenings and plots. However, despite the numerous flaws, and the often dull spots in the middle (though combined with gratuitous violence and sex), L.A. Confidential is a winning story and novel after everything is said and done. It is quite memorable, simply because it works at the end, it is an enjoyable, though exhausting ride. The violence and sex, although gratuitous, makes a rich atmosphere unparalleled since the days of Hammett and Chandler. It is a read quite worth it.

Jean Ellroy, a former Midwest beauty contest winner who had come to Southern California in hopes of becoming a film star, had been raped, then strangled, her body left in an empty lot next door to a school. The tragic death prompted Ellroy's life to spin into a web of tragedy and confusion and he did not find himself and end his turbulent existence until he reached his thirties.

After his mother's death young Ellroy went to live with his father. His parents had divorced and his father, an accountant who once worked for screen siren Rita Hayworth, was going to seed through alcohol. At a time when Ellroy needed stability and proper attention he received neither.

Ellroy sought recognition in the wrong way. Attending a predominantly Jewish school in West Los Angeles, he successfully shocked and antagonized his schoolmates after riding his bicycle to Hollywood and obtaining anti-Semitic right wing hate literature from the notorious John Birchite local bookstore, "Poor Richard's," reading the material, then unleashing it on his schoolmates. He also lost himself in a world of alcohol and drugs, holed up in an abandoned residence at one point, and burgled homes in the area.

His life began taking a different turn when he went to work at a ritzy local country club. Though he was ultimately fired after a physical altercation, it was here that Ellroy stumbled on what would become a lucrative profession that would make him an international celebrity. Still seeking to comprehend the meaning of his mother's unsolved murder, Ellroy began reading Jack Webb's magazine regularly. Webb became famous in the fifties as the creator of the hugely successful "Dragnet" television series, which he produced and starred in, playing a Los Angeles police detective. Ellroy read the magazines religiously, began reading crime novels of the greats such as Chandler and Hammett, and finally began writing himself. It was anything but coincidental that one of Ellroy's biggest hits was "The Black Dahlia" based on the character Elizabeth Short, who came to Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a film star, was brutally murdered, and left in a vacant lot by her killer. The facts closely paralleled the life and death of Jean Ellroy.

When Ellroy achieved riches and renown, also producing such runaway bestsellers as "American Tabloid" and "L.A. Confidential," the latter becoming a highly successful film, he turned his attention to the detective case which had dominated his mind from 1958, the unsolved murder of his mother. Ellroy secured the services of retired Los Angeles homicide detective Bill Stoner to assist him in his effort to crack the case. Ultimately Stoner would become the detective novelist's best friend as they revisited crime scenes in and around El Monte and closely re-examined all available evidence.

While their cumulative efforts would not result in finding the killer or killers of Jean Ellroy, the novelist would find the experience cathartic. He came to know his mother in a way he never had earlier.

One of the most interesting aspects of the investigation was the interview of a woman who had been working as a car hop at a drive in, believed to be the last person to see Jean Ellroy alive aside from her killer. The woman described Jean as a gregarious, friendly woman. The man with her, however, was uncommunicative. The description she gave of a tall, swarthy, dark-haired man correlates with the disclosures of others who earlier that night saw Jean drinking with a man fitting that description at an El Monte nightclub-bar. The same man had been seen at the same establishment as well as another in the area prior to that night. He would never be seen again in the area.

Speculation further abounded over the murder by strangulation of a woman not far from where Jean Ellroy met her death about a year later. If the suspect in question had been a serial killer, however, using that MO, then a question emerged: Why was there no further evidence of future murders or attempts?

The best guess as to what happened to Jean Ellroy was furnished by those who concluded that her killer, expecting sex, ran into resistance. Deciding to take her despite her resistance, spurred on by alcohol, he ultimately concluded that it was better to kill Jean Ellroy rather than risk her reporting the rape to the police. It was very late, dark, and there was presumably no one around so the rapist decided to opt for murder to silence Jean Ellroy. Police investigators speculate that he was an intelligent, perhaps well educated man due to the thoroughness displayed subsequent to the killing. In that he was never seen in El Monte again he might well have been from another area.

This is a work perhaps even more riveting than Ellroy's traditional page-turning fiction in that this is a story of a young boy who lost his mother at the impressionable age of 10, and who was determined to understand Jean Ellroy better and reach a measure of closure in his life.

Ellroy is an astonishingly good writer, albeit a writer who is not for everyone: his vivid and grotesquely detailed explorations of rape and murder, of men preying on woman, of brutal police practices, often make the reader squeamish and uncomfortable. The effect is powerful testimony to the talent.

But where does Ellroy's remarkable writing come from? "My Dark Places," subtitled "An L.A. Crime Memoir," provides an answer: from the real life noir of Ellroy's life.

On a Sunday morning in June, 1958, James Ellroy's forty-five year old mother, Jean, was murdered. Her body was found in a vacant lot next to a school in El Monte, California, a gritty, working class city east of Los Angeles. "A nylon stocking and a cotton cord were lashed around her neck. Both ligatures were tightly knotted." James Ellroy was ten years old at the time. His parents were divorced. He had just returned home from a weekend visit with his father when he was told about the murder. While a "Swarthy Man" was seen with the victim, the murder was never solved.

"My Dark Places" tells the story of Jean Ellroy's murder in 1958. It also tells the story of the next twenty years of James Ellroy's life, when he drifted to drugs and alcohol, to an obsession with crimes of sex and violence, to a kind of noirish bottom which was the prelude to his life as a writer. It tells the story of how the noir obsessions of Ellroy's fictions were the creative and self-sustaining response to the dark episodes of his real life. And, finally, it tells the story of Ellroy's renewed search for his mother's murderer and, along the way, his search for his mother herself. In Ellroy's words:

"I knew things about us. I sensed other things. Her death corrupted my imagination and gave me exploitable gift. My mother gave me the gift and the curse of obsession. It began as curiosity in lieu of childish grief. It flourished as a quest for dark knowledge and mutated into a horrible thirst for sexual and mental stimulation. Obsessive drives almost killed me. A rage to turn my obsessions into something good and useful saved me. I outlived the curse. The gift assumed its final form in language."

"My Dark Places" is a dark and disturbing memoir, an intimate plunge into the life and the psyche of James Ellroy. It is also, like his novels, a chilling exploration of real life crimes of sex and violence in Los Angeles, Ellroy's search for his mother's murderer being the touchstone for a narrative contrail of grisly and perverse crimes that he encounters along the way.

Ellroy is really a tough guy, his books are among the most brutal and cynical I've ever read. There is humanity, he seems to say, but it's destiny is always to give way for lust of power and money. A realistic view, truly. The Big Nowhere is maybe even darker than his other books - in the end, all there's left is... well, the big nowhere, and man driving through it, probably heading for his own death. That's what they call existentialism, I suppose. Ellroy has something to say, which is rare nowadays.

Danny Upshaw, Mal Considine, and Buzz Meeks are among the most vividly-drawn and complex characters ever found in a crime novel. Despite the glaring character flaws in each one of them, some of which border on repugnance, I still managed to empathize with them completely. Ellroy is an absolute master when it comes to tying characters' actions to their various motivations and desires. This gives his works a depth that goes beyond the mere telling of a story. The ways in which Upshaw, Considine, and Meeks relate to the action--the ways in which they internalize it and bend it to their own specific set of needs--force the reader to take a personal interest in them. They are no longer merely the vehicle to draw the reader into the action, as most "detective" characters are in this genre; instead, each one provides a distinct point of view of the action, shaping it as much as they are shaped by it. Not since Philip Marlowe went to jail for Terry Lennox--and Marlowe's own ideals--has a crime novel so tightly woven plot with character.

The story itself is too complicated to do justice in a brief review so I won't even try. The sheer number of subplots and ancillary characters could fill out the entire oeuvre of lesser writers, but Ellroy seamlessly integrates it all into a story that will have you playing the angles long after the book is finished. In fact, a second reading is almost necessary to catch all the nuance.

If you're a fan of detective fiction, these books are required reading. Even if you're not, Ellroy is a fine writer on any level. If you're squeamish at all, you should take a pass.

I picked up this book myself from Partners and Crime's Top 100 shelf (P&C is an awesome mystery bookstore in Manhattan's Greenwich Village). I loaned my copy to a friend, who gave it back to me a week later and said he didn't want to read the rest of the series or any other mystery novel again in his life -- this one was perfect and anything else would just ruin his ability to savor "The Black Dahlia". I loaned it to a second friend who finished it in a week, and then went out and bought the complete Ellroy ouevre. This is not a one-night read unless you have strong eyes, strong coffee, heroic concentration and an iron will.

If you get a chance, hear Ellroy read from these books in person.

Sequencing Ellroy's books is tough, because they're all similar in terms of time frame, setting, and characters. The L.A. trilogy plus one is:

* 1947: The Black Dahlia
* 1950: The Big Nowhere
* 1951: L. A. Confidential
* 1958: White Jazz

Dudley Smith also appears in Ellroy's second novel, "Clandestine", set in 1951.

"The Black Dahlia" is James Ellroy's fictional re-working of the story, a gritty, graphic and vividly imagined crime novel that marks Ellroy as the finest, and perhaps only, contemporary successor to Chandler, Hammett and Cain.

"The Black Dahlia" is the first-person, hard-boiled narrative of Bucky Bleichert, a member of the LAPD Warrants Squad at the time of the Black Dahlia murder. Bleichert, and his partner, Lee Blanchard, are both former boxers. They also share the friendship and romantic attention of a young woman named Kay Lake, a woman with intellectual interests and a somewhat checkered past. From this starting point, Ellroy writes a fascinating, complex and cynical tale of how the fascination with the murdered Elizabeth Short-the Black Dahlia-marks the lives of all the books characters (and this book is bursting with characters and motives).

Ellroy is brilliant in developing a wide range of realistic characters, in writing and successfully resolving a complex and extraordinarily imagined plot, and in depicting the corrupt and often self-serving underbelly of the LAPD and District Attorney's office in post-World War II Los Angeles. In a tone which suggests the subversive and conspiratorial elements of Don DeLillo's "Underworld", but written in the starker style of a noir novel, Ellroy uses the real-life story to show the manipulation and corruption that often belies what we read in the popular press and what lives on in the popular imagination.

"The Black Dahlia" is not intended to be a factual accounting of the real-life murder. Rather, it is a fiction that brilliantly uses the real-life murder to develop a vivid (and at times gut-wrenchingly graphic) description of how the lurid fascination with the Black Dahlia became obsessive, fetishistic, in the lives of Ellroy's characters. If you're interested in noir, or even if you're interested in just plain good, hard-boiled crime novels, "The Black Dahlia" should be at the top of your reading list.

James Ellroy: author. Turns out a good sentence. Knows his stuff. Tough. Uncompromising. Not afraid of risks.

Style: Unusual. Off-putting. Jangled. Nervy. Hard to follow. Worth the trouble.

Dudley Smith: Ellroy's signature character. Evil. Obscene. Brutal. Good to see him again.

Problems: Confusing. Often. Get. Lost. In. Stacatto. Prose.

Plusses: Stream of Consciousness choice inspired. Gets in mind of Dave Klein. Doesn't judge him. Lets us into his world.

Overall: Don't miss. L.A. Confidential - Big Nowhere - Black Dahlia - White Jazz. Terrific. All.

After reading the first three novels in the series, I was reluctant to read White Jazz. I was scared off hearing so much about Ellroy's deepening usage of staccato prose and unattributed dialogue. I was led to believe the book was almost written in an experimental language. Well, I am writing this review for one purpose: to keep people from being fearful of this amazing book. If you like Ellroy, and if you've enjoyed the quartet thus far, you'll love it.

Is White Jazz my favorite in the series? No. I still prefer L.A. Confidential, followed by The Big Nowhere. But White Jazz is much more evolved than The Black Dahlia. And as brutal and dark as it is, White Jazz has more laughs than all the other quartet novels combined. While the novel's halting presentation doesn't allow you to roll through the pages, that's almost a blessing, because every line is dense with nuance and information. You want to pay attention.

I absolutely recommend reading the series in order, and if you're through L.A. Confidential, you simply must complete the quartet. White Jazz strikes the perfect notes in capping the series, and ties up a few ends along the way. It is beautiful, savage, powerful and stunning.

Feature it's more challenging than a Grisham book. Feature that's a good thing. Dig: No big deal. Don't get scared off. Brass knucks/brain swelling/reading in bed. Big fun - big reward. CRAAAAZY.

White jazz works both as a good old fashioned crime noir, and as a fascinating look into the darker recesses of the human soul. Brilliant stuff.