This is my second James Ellroy book and boy was it good! It is the second book of the L. A. Quartet sandwiched between the more famous ‘The Black Dahlia’ and ‘L. A. Confidential’.
The scope is much grander and more complex as compared to the first book.
Excellent cast of characters
We follow the trials and tribulations of 3 very distinct protagonists, calling them heroes would be stretching the truth.
Danny Upshaw is an earnest and inexperienced cop on a trail of a heinous killer.
Mal Considine is a war hero whose police career is on the rise. He is on a political assignment and though he is experienced, he is still a straight shooter and is not very good at playing games.
Turner ‘Buzz’ Meeks is an ex-cop and an extremely crooked one at that. He plays the game well, knows all players and works every angle that he can.
Most stories will give you good cops and bad cops. Ellroy’s cops are on a scale of bad cops, worse cops and outrightly evil cops.
Even then you can’t help root for all 3 as they go along their journey and their individual paths to glory and redemption in their own ways.
The story is told with Ellroy’s usual flair.
The story is tight and how the characters come together and their paths converge is excellently done.
Ellroy’s world is authoritarian and his world view is relentlessly pessimistic. You may not be comfortable with whatevers’ going on and get the disconcerting feeling that some , if not all characters are heading towards a train wreck but you can’t look away. You want more, you need to know how it ends.
This is where Ellroy shines, he takes you on a whirlwind journey and he gives you closure, it may not be what you want but at the end, you wouldn’t have it any other way. It all fits and comes together beautifully.
That is not to say that his books are tragedies, far from it. There’s always semblance of hope but more often than not, it is bittersweet in nature and yet, quite satisfactory.
He spins a good yarn and to be honest, isn’t that what why we read books?
Definitely recommended.
The Big Nowhere
This is my second James Ellroy book and boy was it good! It is the second book of the L. A. Quartet sandwiched between the more famous 'The Black Dahlia' and 'L. A. Confidential'. The scope is ...
