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James Ellroy

Those dark places - My First Ellroy, my last and my favourite. And scroll down for a concise bibliography and some spiffing weblinks.
Stuff stuffed in this section


The 'Demon Dog' - about the man himself

Those dark places - key works, bibliography and links
Black Dahlia A-Z- the full character list for the novel
         
First Ellroy I read   Last Ellroy I read   Best Ellroy I read
The Big Nowhere   Destination: Morgue!   American Tabloid
         

Given away free with some magazine, I junked the magazine and kept reading this. Outstanding style and cracking narrative. Changed what I thought about crime writing. Real cinematic reading, you feel the panoramas and fear the close ups...  

Collection of GQ articles and four novellas. I found the non-fiction better, especially Where I Get My Weird Shit (about his writing process) and My Life As A Creep (about his lawbreaking days). The novellas are OK, just not as polished as the mainstream stuff.  

A true classic. It's the heady mix of high life, low life and real life that does it for me. Pete Bondurant becomes a classic character in a short space of time. Plots double and treble cross, people take a bullet when you least expect...and the last page still puts a shiver down my spine.

 
       
Bibliography  
   
Early works
 
Brown's Requiem, 1981; Clandestine, 1982; Killer On The Road (AKA Silent Terror), 1986
Lloyd Hopkins trilogy
 
Blood On The Moon, 1984; Because The Night, 1984; Suicide Hill, 1986
LA Quartet
 
The Black Dahlia, 1987; The Big Nowhere, 1988; LA Confidential, 1990; White Jazz, 1992
USA Underworld trilogy
 
American Tabloid, 1995; The Cold Six Thousand, 2001; Police Gazette, not yet published
Short stories and articles Hollywood Nocturnes (AKA Dick Contino's Blues), 1994; Crime Wave, 1999; Destination: Morgue!, 2004
 
Non-fiction My Dark Places, 1996 (see also Crime Wave and Destination: Morgue! for his GQ articles)

 
 
Links

http://www.ellroy.com/    Interesting glossary of terms, good bibliography,

http://www.edark.org/ellroy/english/index.html   Good section on books hyperlinks into further articles, video and audio interviews

http://archive.salon.com/dec96/interview961209.html   Salon magazine interview from 1996

http://www.acidlogic.com/im_james_ellroy.htm  Article by John Saleeby

http://www.modestyarbor.com/james_ellroy2004.html  Interview from 2004

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040912/news_lz1v12morgue.html - excellent review of Destination: Morgue!

 

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