The best known group of works by James Ellroy, The LA Quartet covers the years 1946 to 1958 in Los Angeles and it’s about as noir as you can get. It’s bleak, brutal, and beautifully written. With this being the last week of Noirvember I figured it was worthwhile to write about my favorite neo-noir book series.
James Ellroy
In order to fully understand The LA Quartet series you need to know its author, James Ellroy. Born in Los Angeles in 1948 to Armand and Geneva Ellroy, Lee Earle “James” Ellroy’s childhood was something of a noir story.
His dad, a one-time business manager of Rita Hayworth divorced Geneva when Ellroy was young, which will affect any child. But it was when he was 10 years old, and his mother was raped and murdered that his life would forever be different from most other kids. He eventually became obsessed with murder of Elizabeth Short, using the Black Dahlia murder as a conduit for his conflicting emotions surrounding his mother’s death. A murder that was never solved, the case still open.
Ellroy, understandably harbored some demons during his adolescence. He dropped out of school, joined the Army and upon discharge got into trouble, breaking into homes and burglarizing them. He served some time in jail before he cleaned up his act and took his anger out on the written page.
Ellroy dedicated The Black Dahlia, “To Geneva Hilliker Ellroy 1915-1958 Mother: Twenty-nine Years Later, This Valediction in Blood.” It was his seventh book and also the one that earned him critical acclaim.
The Black Dahlia (1987)
The first book in the series covers the very famous and very real murder of Elizabeth Short. With serious shades of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Ellroy is able to weave fictional characters and narratives with very real events like the Black Dahlia, the Zoot Suit Riots, and World War II.
The Black Dahlia follows Dwight “Bucky” Bleichert, a former boxer and current LAPD Detective. Bucky finds himself in the middle of a love triangle. But the woman in the triangle, Kay Lake isn’t the only woman in Bucky’s life. He becomes obsessed with the murdered Short and also meets a spoiled socialite in Madeleine Sprague.
Reading The Black Dahlia aloud would shatter wine glasses.
Elmore Leonard
If you’re thinking, “I saw the movie and it sucked.” Hear me out. Don’t judge the book by that terrible movie. When it comes to LA in this era, the film Black Dahlia was almost as disappointing as Gangster Squad which was pure dogshit. Anyway, it’s a great book and it introduces you to Ellroy’s dark and twisted version of Los Angeles.
The Big Nowhere (1988)
This is my favorite book in the series. It follows three characters on their own separate storylines that intertwine on the sprawling world of post World War II Los Angeles.
The three characters are:
L.A. Deputy Sheriff Danny Upshaw is trying to solve a brutal sex murderer case. Upshaw’s also recruited to expose communists in Hollywood. Unlike most characters in the series, Danny Upshaw is not in the LAPD. Being in West Hollywood, Upshaw works with the Mickey Cohen backed LA Sheriff’s Department.
Turner “Buzz” Meeks, a disgraced former cop, now working for Howard Hughes and the famous mobster Mickey Cohen. Cohen, a real life Jewish gangster is in a mob war with Jake Dragna. Who was the boss of the Italian Los Angeles Crime Family. Dragna controls the LAPD and City Hall.
LAPD lieutenant Malcolm “Mal” Considine, in the middle of a divorce and bitter child custody case. Mal tries to do the right thing. Which is easier said than done when you’re surrounded by criminals and murderers wearing Police uniforms. He tries to move up the ladder in the LAPD. Using the Red Scare and Hollywood blacklist as a stepping stone.
L.A. Confidential (1990)
LA Confidential is the most famous of Ellroy’s work. Largely because it was adapted into such a brilliant Academy Award winning movie. But don’t sleep on the book. It’s well worth the read. It follows an already well established corrupt police department on the heels of the very real life “Bloody Christmas Scandal” of 1951.
Unlike The Black Dahlia, the movie that was adapted from this book is excellent. I actually read this book first out of the series, a thing I don’t normally do but I loved the movie so much and had no idea it was the third installment of a series.
The book is jam packed with much more story, the world is so rich. And it has enough well developed characters to field a football team. So it’s no surprise that there have been two attempts at a LA Confidential TV series. Once in 2003 (with Kiefer Sutherland) and again in 2018.
I have no idea if the most recent TV version is still greenlit. But if it is, I hope it encompasses the whole Ellroy universe he created.
White Jazz (1992)
Told from Dave Klein’s perspective, White Jazz ties everything up from the previous books nicely. Klein is a LAPD Detective in the Vice squad. He’s also sexually attracted to his sister, and he a part time hitman for the mob. Money earned from contract killing helps pay for law school. In short, he’s a stand up guy.
Early in the book, Klein is supposed to protect a witness who’s testifying against Sam Giancana. Sam, the real life mob boss of Chicago has been tied to Kennedy and Frank Sinatra in real life. Klein tosses the guy he’s supposed to protect out a high window. Much like Abe Reles, the canary who couldn’t fly, but sure could sing.
We soon find out that the LAPD are more gangster than the gangsters and Edmund Exley is trying to set things right that were wronged in LA Confidential. It’s a solid end to a great series of books. I can’t recommend them enough.
