Product Description

Los Angeles, 1958: a city on the make. A boom town at the edge of a new era ripe for plunder. Lieutenant Dave Klein: in turn a lawyer, bagman, slum landlord, mob killer. Klein stands at the centre of a complex web of plots, where violence and death will intersect.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25910 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From the Publisher
'The most original crime writer of our time' Spectator

About the Author
James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed LA Quartet, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz, as well as the first two parts of his Underworld USA trilogy, American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand which were both Sunday Times bestsellers.

Customer Reviews

The finest crime writing - stylish prose, sharp dialogue....
Ellroy deserves so many superlatives for this work. His language is pared down to small bullet like phrases - like beat poetry or a stream of semi consciousness as we follow the case through the blood shot eyes of Dave Klein, the most corrupt, cold blooded, and twisted hero imaginable. The pace is relentless, leaving you breathless; the thoughts, actions and dialogue distilled to their most potent and concentrated form, leaving your brain bruised, at times baffled, but ultimately buzzing. There is little cheer in Ellroy's nightmare vision, even the love interest offers little relief and his plot reveals how dirty LA political fighting got in the 1950s. Howard Hughes, Hollywood, LAPD, FBI, the world of Boxing & Football, slum landlords, drug dealers and pimps battle, no holds barred, for supremacy and life is cheap. Only the tough survive and Dave Klein flourishes. White Jazz captures this hell better than any other crime book i've ever read.

If you liked LA Confidential, get a load of this!!
I've only recently discovered James Ellroy, LA Confidential was my first of his novels, next White Jazz and Clandestine. I noticed that LA Confidential was given a 5 star rating so it will be difficult for me to describe White Jazz as even better!! White Jazz has all the mystery, intrigue and suspense of LA Confidential and then takes the reader further - deeper into the seedy underground world of 1950's Los Angeles. Ellroy has a knack of keeping you guessing, on all of the many and varied sub-plots. White Jazz is gentle, but at times shockingly brutal. It is this mix that makes it one of my all-time favouite reads.

The densest and darkest of Ellroy's LA Quartet
Dave Klein is your typical James Ellroy hero. He's corrupt, violent, amoral, driven, and in love with his own sister. And he's a cop.

This novel pits Klein against almost the entire LA establishment, including the awe-inspiring Dudley Smith. The actual crimes that spark the story are almost irrelevant and the twists and turns of the plot almost too labyrinthine to enumerate - this book is about what Ellroy does best; disturbed interior monologue, brutal description and dialogue that reads like a mixture of lyrical poetry and aggravated assault.

An incredibly dense and challenging book, with very little in the way of hope or redemption on offer to the characters - a fine and fitting conclusion to the LA Quartet.