After a long hiatus from reading I read through all four books in about a month and just wanted to jaw about them a bit. I’m a sucker for noir and these are easily some of the best in any medium. This post may be a bit lengthy but I’d really like to hear people’s thoughts.
The formula is consistent and good. One or more psychosexually twisted policemen investigate a sprawling case that they gradually get sucked into, barraged at all times with tiny pieces of information that all somehow come together into a neat package at the end. The surprising thing is it hits every time. The prose beams directly into your head just on account of its perfect rhythm and the plots somehow stay consistently bleak while always having at least one hell yeah moment per book. The real clincher for me is it’s perfectly in tune with how pathetic and strange people can be.
The Black Dahlia is probably the one least subject to total Ellroy overload and has the best main character of all of them, if only because he’s just mundane enough that his angst feels real. It has the most non-case related intrigue which helps flesh out the characters and the coolest psychosexual drama of them all in the weird Challenger’s esque love triangle between the main characters. It has a few too many final revelations for my taste though.
The Big Nowhere is easily the best of them all. All of the characters and plots fit in perfectly and come together at the end in a way that got to me to finish the last half in one night. Upshaw and Meeks were particular standouts, with the former’s story being shockingly empathetic given the usual lurid depiction of homosexuality. The ending was the highlight, especially the torching of the communist investigation. It also has the benefit of introducing Dudley Smith, one the best villains in any book I’ve read, mostly because he’s just sort of a dragon, an avatar of pure malice.
LA Confidential is quite good but surprisingly my least favorite. The conspiracy is too complicated, has a lot of superfluous hangnails, and is bogged down by somehow involving two different serial killers and Dudley’s plan to silence witnesses involving staging the biggest prison break in LA history. All the Dieterling stuff seemed promising but fizzled out strangely, with the coup being the strange reveal that Exley’s pseudo-uncle was responsible for unrelated murders. Positives are that Exley and White are in the top protagonists of the Quartet and their hatred feels relatable from both ends. Inez is the best love interest in the Quartet, despite the bizarre ending with her suicide pact with her boss and ex’s dad. The ending was also both bleak and great, and cements Exley as probably second best protagonist.
White Jazz is probably the tightest and most technically proficient of the books and helped by the fact that it has only one protagonist. It’s also great in that it has the single least redeemable protagonist of any of them in Dave Klein, and the book mostly just follows his downward trajectory. The conspiracy is fairly tight and it gives a great resolution to the overarching Dudley Smith plot of the books, as well as giving you a look at a more grizzled Exley. The romance is a real stinker though, and almost makes you wish that Klein’s sister was the main love interest, which felt somewhat superfluous to have in the first place. Has a similar problem to the Black Dahlia in having too many endings. The old man reprieve at the end is a bit too much.
by This-Presence-5478