LA Confidential (classic Noir)

By (author) Ellroy, James
Short description/annotation:
One of the best (and longest) crime novels ever written, it is the heart of Ellroy''s four-novel masterpiece, the LA Quartet, and an example of crime writing at its most powerful.
Description:

''The king of macho noir'' GUARDIAN
''The American Dostoevsky'' JOYCE CAROL OATES
''One of the great American writers of our time'' LOS ANGELES TIMES
''Fierce, brave, funny, scatological, beautiful, convoluted and paranoid'' STEPHEN KING
''One of the most original and daring writers alive'' INDEPENDENT

Christmas 1951, Los Angeles: a city where the police are as crooked 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...The novel takes these cops on a sprawling epic of brutal violence and the murderous seedy side of Hollywood. One of the best (and longest) crime novels ever written, it is the heart of Ellroy''s four-novel masterpiece, the LA Quartet, and an example of crime writing at its most powerful.

Review quote:
Ellroy writes as if driven by demons. His brutal, staccato graffiti tips over into art
Review quote:
No emotion is spared; the writing is sparse, the plotting controlled. Not for the faint of heart, this is a big, powerful crime novel and possibly the first important example of the genre in the 1990s
Review quote:
Empty of any unessentials and full of wise-cracking wit
Review quote:
Unputdownable
Biographical note:
James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed ''LA Quartet'': The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz. His most recent novel, Blood''s a Rover, completes the magisterial ''Underworld USA Trilogy'' - the first two volumes of which (American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand) were both Sunday Times bestsellers.
Promotional headline:
Ellroy''s back with the third of his LA Quartet!