Rating: 
Summary: A lower than average read
Review: The book's premise, plot and prose are OK. I think the movie swept the book along. It is waaaay too long, the characters sometimes border on unbelievable, and the dialogue is monotonous. It's an interesting noir book, with a lot of period references. I say stick with the movie and skip the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Calling it a crime novel is too simple
Review: I have never read a crime novel like LA Confidential. It's huge, with a sprawling plot and an undercurrent of sleaze and corruption that makes the skin crawl. After reading it, I don't think I will ever think the same way about the police. This is not easy reading. It's for people who like intense plotting and staccato, sharp-edged prose. For those people, it's a sheer pleasure to read.
Rating: 
Summary: I hate to see the movie now ....
Review: because the book was so derned good! All I can say is James Ellroy has a knack for bringing the skeletons out of everyone's closet. I certainly wouldn't want to be his friend because he'd probably uncover something bad about my character! Needless to say, the book was jam packed full of meaning and indirect references to the real truths of the characters. The books writing style, although at times very difficult to follow (James Ellroy has an amazing ability to cram what most writers would take 45 words to say into the space of about 15), really makes this book sing. I thought I was in the 50's reading this book. I can't remember the last time I read the word "bupkis" in a novel! Oh well, action packed, yet full of depth. First class all the way.
Rating:
Summary: Overwhelmingly fast, dense, and satisfying
Review: For better or worse, I'd seen the film before I picked up this book. I guess it's for the better, actually, because if the film hadn't been so intense and enjoyable I would not have read the book (I haven't read too much in this genre or any of Ellroy's work). Ellroy has said that he enjoyed the movie but that the actors don't quite match up with his visions of them. I agree. It took a few chapters to make the transition from what I'd seen in the film to what I was reading, but before long I had my own conceptions of the characters and no longer saw Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito. This is a tribute Ellroy's ability to convey tones of character in few words -- there's very little exposition in this book! Ellroy has created characters who reveal themselves through action, not discussion (although the L.A. gangland dialect is a lark). In a byzantine plot such as "L.A. Confidential's", you need good characters to latch onto for the ride. Ellroy succeeds in creating characters that are dark, unpredictable, yet highly sympathetic. Ellroy also scores major points with his use of newspaper "stories" (both legitimate and tabloid) to propel the story down it's path pell-mell. Violent, jaded, cynical, you name it -- this book keeps you riveted, even if you sometimes have to go back and reread a chapter or two to remind yourself exactly what's going on.
Rating:
Summary: A riviting & satisfying novel of Scandal and corruption
Review: This terrific hard boiled novel is not for the faint of heart or for wussy politically correct types. James Ellroy really lets it rip in this epic and Byzantine yarn of suprising complexity. Ellroy's staccato-like prose keeps the plot moving at a rapid fire pace. Digging deep into the sordid underbelly of Post WWII Los Angeles, Ellroy interweaves the stories of three cops who make the Rodney King incident look like child's play. For fans of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald or for those who simply want a high dose injection of sex and operatic violence done on a grand scale, this is a must read. I hope the movie is just as good
Rating:
Summary: Too bad its now a movie
Review: As book three of James Elroy's "L.A. Quartet' I didn't know quite what to expect. What I found was a pleasant surprise, while this book is not the craziest of the four, The Big Nowhere wins that one, or the riveting, probably The Black Dahlia. It is the most satisfying. This time among the craziness and murder and rape and brutality, all three main characters undergo interesting and gratisfying transitions and don't get killed off. A good synopsis is to say that the fucking insanity that we love from Ellroy is still there but more structured this time.
Rating:
Summary: Gritty
Review: This is a man's man kinda book with all sorts of sorted types and packed full of street talk lingo. I think there ought'a be a glossory. The story is swift and unrelenting and shy types should stay away. Some of the stuff had me blushing. The three main cops in the story had me liking, scorni ng, liking. It's not the kind of book you'd want kids to get a hold of, but it was sure good and makes me glad I'm not part of that scene. (I understand a movie is in the making, and I wonder if it'll be as good as the book, what with Danny DeVito in it for crying out loud. I can't imangine that little squirt as a bad or good guy. Maybe he's one of the riff-raff sleaz bags. Who did the casting with that one?) Anyway, I wonder how the LAPD feels about this book since it's all about how the public generally thinks of the LAPD. Well, all the bad stuff that is
Rating:
Summary: A Landmark Book For Cime Fiction....Terrific
Review: James Ellroy's LA Confidential will no doubt go down in history as a landmark work like Chandler's The Big Sleep and Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Ellroy's style in entirely unique; there is really no one else like him. This novel is told in the noir traditions but with a contemporary writer's touch. Characters as real as the people you know are found in these pages, made even more real by their flaws. If you're one of those who saw the movie but has not read the book, consider this: The movie is amazing. And it cheats the power of this novel. A must-have for any crime fiction fanatic.
Rating:
Summary: Graphic and Exhilirating!!
Review: James Ellroy is likely America's best active crime fiction writer. In his dark and disturbing vision of Los Angeles in the 40's and 50's the bad guys are pretty bad, but the cops are even worse. Partially based on real incidents, and interwoven with real historical characters, Elrroy finely crafts a thrilling fictional story. If you liked the movie, you will like the book even more. Although quite long, I couldn't put this book down until I was finished.
Rating:
Summary: dark and disturbing
Review: More than any other writer since Jim Thompson and the early Greats (Chandler, Hammett, Cain), Ellroy is able to create a dark and disturbing world all his own. Much more complex than the movie, the book achieves the fine balancing act of blind-siding you with events without confusing you in the slightest, not an easy task. The writing is so intense at times that the tension is almost unbearable. Required reading for any mystery fan.
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