L.A. Confidential
Three detectives descend into the underbelly of Los Angeles, where all the classic elements of an Ellroy novel—police corruption, Hollywood scandal, and organized crime—collide in this bestselling installment in the L.A. Quartet.
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. Three LAPD detectives get involved. Ed Exley wants to eclipse his policeman father’s success. Bud White watched his own mother’s murder—and is now a time bomb with a badge. Jack Vincennes shakes down movie stars for a scandal magazine.
These events will expose the guilty secrets on which they have built their corrupt and violent careers. The three men are caught in a deadly spiral, a nightmare that tests loyalty and courage, and offers no mercy, grants no survivors.
L.A. Confidential is one of the most beloved and influential crime novels ever written.
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James Ellroy
James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. Quartet novels — The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz — have won numerous awards and were international bestsellers. Likewise, the novels of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy — American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover. The Quartet and Trilogy are now available in Everyman’s Library editions.
2023 is Demon Dog Ellroy’s Triple Crown year. On April 21 he will be honored with the L.A. Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime excellence in writing about the American West. Late this summer, the twenty-hour podcast of “James Ellroy’s American Tabloid” will drop on Audible. It will be unexpurgated, uncensored, and unabridged. Ellroy himself reads all narrative passages; noted actors read the dialogue. Boffo sound effects and jazzy period music accompany the spoken text. “James Ellroy’s American Tabloid” is a revolutionary advance for the podcast form.
L. A. Quartet
L. A. Quartet consists of four books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
