Father’s Day is June 16th – so there’s time for you to recommend some
crime-themed reading that could be a useful gift idea for dads of different
ages, and with different interests…and allow those reading the blog to order
it, and get it in time to wrap it!
I thought this time around I’d
stick with one author for this Father’s Day recommendation: James Ellroy. Seems
that people either love him or hate him, both as a person and his books. I’m
(mostly) in the dig him daddio category.
He’s a trip. His writing is a
trip. His books are a trip. They would be good for anyone who’s into new noir
with a retro setting, LA history buffs and the usual suspects.
He writes both fiction and
non-fiction, short stories and novels, but I’m only going to focus on the novels here. In the fiction category he’s probably best known for his
L.A. Quartet (The Black Dahlia, 1987; The Big Nowhere, 1988; L.A. Confidential,
1990; and White Jazz, 1992.) And, while I’m not going to talk about every novel
of his here, I do like most of them with the exceptions mentioned here.
I like the way he deals with
corruption and the sultry grittiness of his works. They also deal with the
other side of the American Dream. And there's an inner core of darkness and
corruption in society, a feeling of fear and paranoia. There's a moral
ambiguity. They are the equivalent of an Edward Hopper painting with its cold
light and shadows, filled with a sense of alienation and angst.
Ellroy is something to behold,
both stylistically and if you've ever seen one of his "readings." The
Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction started out with a mild roar, crescendoed
to a roar on steroids through a Marshall stack with his L.A. Quartet, but seems
to have overdosed on Evelyn Wood (remember her?) speed-writing, making some of
his works hard to sink your teeth into.
I used to go to all of his
readings. At one event he even had a band with him. And one Thanksgiving my
sister-in-law's cousin joined us at my parents’. He was working in a bookstore
at the time and had been force-fed a reading by Ellroy. Of course, he thought
Ellroy an a-hole in so many ways for his "schtick.” And those were the nice
things he had to say. So was it the books or his spiel? Well, he hadn't read the books but he'd heard
a little of one in the reading. That was enough for him. But you have to know him
and his mindset and the context of the books. That said, if you’re sensitive
and need trigger warnings, Ellroy might not be for you or your dad. But the
thing with Ellroy is a lot of it is schtick and he’s trying to get your
attention…which he does.
The first book in the L.A.
Quartet is The Black Dahlia and that’s the first book I read by him. I remember
it took me a while to get into it, but once I did I was hooked on the book and
hooked on Ellroy. He had several books before The Black Dahlia, but that’s the
book that put him on the map. After reading that I read all of his earlier
books and couldn’t wait for each subsequent book.
The Big Nowhere is my favorite book in the L.A.
Quartet: All are good, but if I had to pick one as a fave it would be The Big
Nowhere. To try to describe Ellroy’s fever dream style is an exercise in
futility. The story is set in LA in the 50s right after WWII. In part, it
follows Sheriff’s deputy Danny Upshaw through the investigation of a series of
mutilation crimes and exposes corruption and hypocrisy amid the “red scare”.
Towards the end of the L.A.
Quartet series his writing style became more choppy and staccato. I liked it at
first, but with later books it got to be too much. His next series was the
Underworld USA Trilogy. And I liked American Tabloid, but Blood’s a Rover and the
Cold Six-Thousand left me cold. And much of the reason for that was the style.
His most recent book, Perfidia (2014) seems more back to form for me and is the start of a Second L.A. Quartet. And I’m looking forward to his new book This Storm , releasing on June 4th…just in time for Father’s Day.
His most recent book, Perfidia (2014) seems more back to form for me and is the start of a Second L.A. Quartet. And I’m looking forward to his new book This Storm , releasing on June 4th…just in time for Father’s Day.
Some of his books, L.A.
Confidential, The Black Dahlia and Brown’s Requiem (filmed under the title
Cop), have been made into movies. And he’s worked on screenplays for other
films including Rampart, Dark Blue and others.
Here’s a list of his books:
Bibliography:
Brown's Requiem (1981)
Clandestine (1982)
Killer on the Road (originally published as Silent Terror)
(1986)
Lloyd Hopkins
Trilogy:
Blood on the Moon (1984)
Because the Night (1984)
Suicide Hill (1986)
L.A. Quartet:
The Black Dahlia (1987)
The Big Nowhere (1988)
L.A. Confidential (1990)
White Jazz (1992)
Underworld USA
Trilogy:
American Tabloid (1995)
The Cold Six Thousand (2001)
Blood's a Rover (2009)
The Second L.A.
Quartet:
Perfidia (2014)
This Storm (2019)
***
I’d also like to say that my
books might make good Father’s Day gifts, too. For the most part, they’re
gritty L.A.-set stories. Novels: White Heat, Broken Windows, Vortex
(stand-alone) and L.A. Late @ Night, a collection of previously published
stories. And two collections of short stories that I co-edited with Andy
McAleer: Coast to Coast: Private Eyes (14 award nominations, two stories chosen
for Best American Mysteries of 2018), Coast to Coast: Murder from Sea to
Shining Sea.
~.~.~New May issue of Mystery Weekly is out. And I'm honored to have my new story The Box featured on the cover. Hope you'll check it out. -- This link is to the Kindle version, but there's also a paper version available.
https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Weekly-Magazine-2019-Issues-ebook/dp/B07RC8XS93
***
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