James Ellroy

James Ellroy is an American novelist born in Los Angeles in 1948. His crime fiction reimagines the city's history through stories of policing, corruption, ambition and violence, often bringing invented plots into contact with recognisable public events.

The L.A. Quartet comprises The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential and White Jazz. He extended his historical scope in the Underworld U.S.A. trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand and Blood's a Rover. Ellroy's work connects the crime novel with political history, presenting the institutions of mid-century America through the compromised people who operate within them.