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Overview
Los Angeles. In no other city do sex, celebrity, money, and crime exert such an irresistible magnetic field. And no writer has mapped that field with greater savagery and savvy than James Ellroy. With this fever-hot collection of reportage and short fiction, he returns to his native habitat and portrays it as a smog-shrouded netherworld where"every third person is a peeper, prowler, pederast, or pimp."
From the scandal sheets of the 1950s to this morning's police blotter, Ellroy reopens true crimes and restores human dimensions to their victims. Sublimely, he resurrects the rag Hush-Hush magazine. And in a baroquely plotted novella of slaughter and corruption he enlists the forgotten luminaries of a lost Hollywood. Shocking, mesmerizing, and written in prose as wounding as an ice pick, Crime Wave is Ellroy at his best.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780375704710
- ISBN-10: 037570471X
- Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
- Publish Date: January 1999
- Dimensions: 8.02 x 5.22 x 0.73 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.57 pounds
- Page Count: 304
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Review by Charles Wyrick
For those who can't get enough crime reporting from their local newspaper, God created James Ellroy. Whether it be fiction or prose,
no one writes better about violence and deviant behavior. In his newest book,
Crime Wave, the author writes about his usual suspects . . . I mean subjects
(i.e. sex, violence, and Los Angeles) as well as revisiting his own past. Part
reporting, part noir fiction, and part personal history, Crime Wave shows the
many sides to the writing of this fascinating man. Luckily not many authors can
claim James Ellroy's background. In 1957, a police detective informed the then
ten-year-old that his mother had been killed. To this day the murder stands
unsolved. Thus Crime Wave begins with three essays on unsolved murders, each
involving women (one being Ellroy's mother) and all occurring in L.A. In these
pieces Ellroy plays historical detective. He immerses himself in homicide files
to reconstruct the lives of the victims. In his writing, Ellroy faces the cruel
facts of violent crime and displays his untiring knowledge of L.A. police work
procedure. At times he sounds like the most hardened detective on the beat, which
is not too much of a stretch for this gifted literary chameleon. In addition to
nonfiction, Crime Wave includes three new stories that display the kind of
hard-boiled fiction for which Ellroy is best known. Fans of L.A. Confidential
will be happy to catch up with Danny Getchell, owner and operator of Hush Hush,
Hollywood's most salacious and vicious insider gossip rag. Elsewhere Ellroy digs
up some serious West Coast foul play through one of his favorite tinsel town
scenesters, the tough, accordion-squeezing loverboy, Dick Contino. These tales
deliver the goods on the city of angels. So if crime's your bag, lose your local
paper and check out James Ellroy.
Charles Wyrick plays guitar in the band Stella.
Review by Charles Wyrick
For those who can't get enough crime reporting from their local newspaper, God created James Ellroy. Whether it be fiction or prose,
no one writes better about violence and deviant behavior. In his newest book,
Crime Wave, the author writes about his usual suspects . . . I mean subjects
(i.e. sex, violence, and Los Angeles) as well as revisiting his own past. Part
reporting, part noir fiction, and part personal history, Crime Wave shows the
many sides to the writing of this fascinating man. Luckily not many authors can
claim James Ellroy's background. In 1957, a police detective informed the then
ten-year-old that his mother had been killed. To this day the murder stands
unsolved. Thus Crime Wave begins with three essays on unsolved murders, each
involving women (one being Ellroy's mother) and all occurring in L.A. In these
pieces Ellroy plays historical detective. He immerses himself in homicide files
to reconstruct the lives of the victims. In his writing, Ellroy faces the cruel
facts of violent crime and displays his untiring knowledge of L.A. police work
procedure. At times he sounds like the most hardened detective on the beat, which
is not too much of a stretch for this gifted literary chameleon. In addition to
nonfiction, Crime Wave includes three new stories that display the kind of
hard-boiled fiction for which Ellroy is best known. Fans of L.A. Confidential
will be happy to catch up with Danny Getchell, owner and operator of Hush Hush,
Hollywood's most salacious and vicious insider gossip rag. Elsewhere Ellroy digs
up some serious West Coast foul play through one of his favorite tinsel town
scenesters, the tough, accordion-squeezing loverboy, Dick Contino. These tales
deliver the goods on the city of angels. So if crime's your bag, lose your local
paper and check out James Ellroy.
Charles Wyrick plays guitar in the band Stella.