Suicide Hill Another brilliant thriller featuring Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins of the Los Angeles police.
In disgrace after a badly handled arrest, Hopkins is assigned to the investigation of a series of diabolically clever bank robberies. The criminals have done their homework: they pick out bank managers engaged in illicit affairs, kidnap their girlfriends as hostages, and blackmail the managers into co-operation.
The chief villain is Duane Rice, just out of jail. But his game erupts explosively into an orgy of violence when his rape-prone partner goes berserk; and Duane himself settles scores with knife and bullet in the Los Angeles underworld.
But, as Hopkins leads the biggest manhunt in the city's history, he stumbles on a horrifying conspiracy of corruption and betrayal among his own colleagues in the police department - men who are now sworn to get rid of him. "Hurtles along with almost equal gore and slapstick. L.A.'s sleazy sides are brilliantly drawn ... Ellroy can't write a dull line" Publishers Weekly
Paperback - Arrow (1996)
Clandestine 1951- Patrolman Frederick Underhill of the Los Angeles Police Department is an ambitious rookie with a dream to become the most celebrated detective of his time. He is also sexually promiscuous. His two drives are brought together by the slaying of Maggie Cadwallader, a lonely woman whom Underhill slept with shortly before her death.
Using his inside knowledge, Underhill discovers a likely suspect, and uses the information to buy himself on to the case which is being handled by LA's most fearsome and most unscrupulous pursuer of murder: Lieutenant Dudley Smith. Soon Underhill is an accomplice to Smith's ruthless interrogation techniques. But far from the celebrity he was hoping for, Underhill finds himself on the edge of the abyss, his whole life and future about to take a fall. `Ellroy is a unique voice in American fiction' Jonathan Kellerman
`Ellroy's crime fiction represents a high mark in the genre' New York Newsday
Dudley Smith Trio
Big Nowhere - LA Confidential - White Jazz.
LA Confidential Praise for LA Confidential `In its power, drive, and sheer ambition, L.A. Confidential eclipses all of James Ellroy's previous works. This gripping and intricate portrayal of corruption, double-dealing and terrible twisted passions challenges - and may very well shatter - the boundaries of the contemporary crime novel. Ellroy is a unique voice in American fiction and this, his premier creation, is destined to be a classic' Jonathan Kellerman
`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. James Ellroy has emerged as a unique voice in American crime writing' The Sunday Telegraph
`The aspiring Balzac of America's slimy underbelly, James Ellroy, splashes another large-scale canvas of the inhuman comedy with broad, violent brush strokes. Ellroy writes as if driven by demons. His brutal, staccato graffiti tip over into art' The Sunday Times
Suicide Hill
Suicide Hill