The Black Dahlia depicts the infrastructure of L.A.'s most sensational murder case. A young cop morphs into the obsessed lover and lust-crazed avenger. His rogue investigation is a one-way ticket to hell
James Ellroy Books
James Ellroy is a master of the hardboiled crime genre, renowned for his distinctive telegraphic style that omits unnecessary words and often employs sentence fragments. His works are noted for their dark humor, dense plotting, and a relentlessly pessimistic worldview. Ellroy delves into the depiction of American authoritarianism, earning him the moniker the "Demon Dog of American crime fiction." His novels are celebrated for their incisive gaze into society's underbelly and their unmistakable stylistic urgency, pulling readers into a vortex of suspense and cynicism.







Dudley Smith Trio
- 1325 pages
- 47 hours of reading
The Big Nowhere: In 1950s LA three men are drawn into the shadow of communist witch hunts and violent killings that force each one to confront his own personal darkness. Three of the most epic and powerful crime novels ever written, this volume is an explosive journey through the dark side of recent American history, and crime writing at its best.
"America was never innocent." Thus begins the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy. It's James Ellroy's pop history of the 1960s, his window-peeper's view of government misconduct, his dirty trickster's take on the great events of an incendiary era. It's a tour de force of the American idiom, and an acknowledged masterpiece. American Tabloid gives us Jack Kennedy's ride, seen from an insider's perspective. We're there for the rigged 1960 election. We're there for the Bay of Pigs fiasco. We're the eyes and ears and souls of three rogue cops who've signed on for the ride and come to see Jack as their betrayer. We're Jack's pimps and hatchet men, and we're there for that baroque slaying in Dallas.The Cold Six Thousand takes us from Dallas to Vietnam to Memphis to the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in L.A. We're rubbing shoulders with RFK and MLK, calamitous klansmen, noted mafiosi. We're forced to relive the American sixties--and we come away breathless.The first two books of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy revisit the most anarchic decade in our history. They are defined by their brutal linguistic flair and reckless panache.
The Black Dahlia depicts the infrastructure of L.A.'s most sensational murder case. White Jazz gives us the tortured confession of a cop who's gone to the bad - killer, slum landlord and parasitic exploiter.
American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand
- 1192 pages
- 42 hours of reading
This time the ride takes us from Dallas to Vietnam to Las Vegas to Memphis to Cuba to the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in L.A. A kid private eye clashes with a mob goon and an enforcer for FBI director Edgar Hoover in L.A.
The Big Nowhere. Blutschatten, englische Ausgabe
- 496 pages
- 18 hours of reading
This novel is set in Los Angeles, the city of angels that has become the city of the Angel of Death. It is about communist witch-hunts and about insanely violent killings which are terrorising the community.
American Tabloid
- 352 pages
- 13 hours of reading
A novel of the Kennedy era, portraying the president in a far from flattering light. There are three protagonists: a CIA agent who pimps for JFK, another agent who trains anti-Castro rebels, and a lawyer who is a Mafia hunter. Through their eyes are seen the conflicting interests of the Kennedys, the director of the FBI, organized crime, organized labor, Castro and Cuban exiles.
It is Christmas, 1951, Los Angeles. A city where the police are as corrupt as the criminals, six prisoners are beaten senseless in their cells by cops crazed on alcohol. For the three L.A.P.D. detectives involved, it will expose the guilty secrets on which they have built their corrupt and violent careers
"L.A. is a city where it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad. At Central Police Station, Christmas 1951, cops beat up six suspects. This will change the careers of the three LAPD detectives involved"--http://trove.nla.gov.au
The cold six thousand
- 669 pages
- 24 hours of reading
A young Las Vegas cop named Wayne Tedrow, Jr. travels through the 1960s, from JFK's assassination to Vietnam, unaware that J. Edgar Hoover is the one pulling the strings.



