Rating: 
Summary: No sentimentalism, Noir through and through
Review: God, this book is ruthless! With blood and gore generously splattered all over the place. Countless limbs get chopped off, beautiful women get raped and killed, everybody gets lost in hell that was La-La land once upon a time. Don't ever think of those soft touches of jazzy romanticism that made the movie so touchingly beautiful. There is no emotional outlet in this one. This book just boils and boils to the danger limit! This book is "literally" noir itself. After watching the movie, I thought Bud White was the hero of this book. No, it was just Russell Crowe stole the movie. Bud White is an unforgettable character for sure, but this book is mainly about Ed Exley and his development. He is the one who provides the main viewpoint. God, I pity him. Poor, poor man. When you've done with this book, you'll all know what I mean. What A terrible bildungsroman for the poor, poor golden boy. This is a great, great page turner for sure, but a great work of literature? That's another story. And the ending comes rather abruptly. Especially for Inez Soto. Still a delightful read. There's no doubt about it. Liked the Walt Disney parody, too.
Rating:
Summary: More of Silence of the Lambs than L.A.C. the movie!
Review: God, this book is ruthless! The blood and gore just splattered all over the place. Countless limbs get chopped off, beautiful women get raped and killed, everybody gets lost in hell that was La-La land once upon a time. Don't ever think of those soft touches of jazzy romanticism that made the movie so touchingly beautiful. There is no emotional outlet in this one. It just boils and boils to the danger limit! God, I pity Capt. Ed Exley. Poor, poor man. When you've done with this book, you'll all know what I mean. One thing I can tell ya: After seeing the movie, I thought Bud White was the real hero of this book. No, it was just Russell Crowe stole the movie. This book is mainly about Ed Exley. He is the main viewpoint. What A terrible bildungsroman for the poor, poor golden boy. A Great Page Turner, that's for sure, but a great work of literature? That's another story. And the ending comes rather abruptly. Especially for Inez Soto.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't keep this confidential !
Review: This masterpiece of 1950's noir blows away the stereotypic "Leave it to Beaver" image of America and ignores the glitter of Tinseltown, leaving bare the violent reality of society's police force left in the gulch between the law and the law enforcement. A gruesome murder, stolen heroin, a depraved rape tarnish the self-righteous epithet of the City of Angels. The investigations interweave, as the characters grow on you. The characters are intimately painted in detail, without being heavy or overdone. Elroy has an amazing grasp of how to paint the ordinary man. The use of language is utterly delightful, with a consistant effort to read like the American English of the 50's. The book is long and heavy. This is not light summer reading fare or 'brain-candy' for an afternoon. But, if you want a spectacular American novel, this is it. Movie comparison: well, seeing the movie certainly won't spoil the book. The basic plot is the same, but the action is different. After seeing the film, I sought out the book. After reading the book, I was even more impressed with how true to the flavor (though not the details) of the film. The character's relationships in the movie aren't the same as the film - obviously trying to keep the movie under 7 hours. If you liked it, go get the book.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: In L.A. Confidential, Ellroy expertly weaves together several plot lines, with lethal injections of suspense and mystery. A brilliant page-turner--highly recommended. Much better than the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Thick, complex, horrifying Noir.
Review: LA Confidential is without a doubt the most satisfying, retro 50's crime novel I have ever read, and will prove a treasure trove of additional thrills to any fan of the critically acclaimed movie released in 1998. I picked up the hardcover version of this book in 1992 and since then have read it a dozen times, making it one of the most dog-eared books in my collection. Ellroy's original novel carries about two and a half times the story (compared with the movie) and is much stronger for it. Characters Bud White, Edmund Exley, and Jack Vincennes are fleshed out more meticulously in more studied and disturbingly graphic detail, as they wind their way through the frighteningly amoral landscape of this 1950's L.A.. Here, White isn't a thug, he is a barely controllable monster, whose physical power (oh, lets say roughly 3x the size of Russell Crowe)and penchant for beating felons to death makes him the most feared man in the department. Surprisingly, White is the only character here that comes close to redemption by story's end. On the other end of the spectrum is Ed Exley, whose brains and ability to accurately read people and situations prove a powerful survival tool in this complex plot of frame ups, evidence plantings, and intra-LAPD subterfuge. White, Vincennes, and Exley have their skeletons, which are dragged into the light and examined in meticulous detail, adding additional levels of story and subplot not present in the abridged edtion (or movie). The real star here is author James Ellroy, a brilliant writer who weaves a fantastic yet thoroughly believable, complex tale that never rings false or ridiculous. His incredible ability to craft such complex plot/sub-plots in such powerful, adrenalized, descriptive prose makes him nothing less than a national treasure from the dark side. Highest recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: All Hail The King
Review: This was the first Ellroy book I'd ever encountered, years before the movie; fact, when I first heard of the movie's imminent release, I wondered how in the hell they could do it in under 7 or 8 hours. (As it turns out, they couldn't, though Hanson and company did an above-average job.) But the novel, with its Byzantine structure and incredibly addictive colloquial prose, strides like a colossus over nearly every other crime novel written in the last 20 years. I can picture the casual mystery-novel reader picking this up when it was first published, hoping for a good Chandler/Cain pastiche, and finishing it in dire need of a good psychoanalyst. The theme and LA-setting aside, Ellroy's spiritual fathers turn out to be not Chandler and Cain but Jim Thompson and Louis Ferdinand-Celine, and the immense entertainment-value of this sprawling work is continually informed by its unflinching eye fixed upon the moral and spiritual rot of far more than mere movie studios. The cliche 'power corrupts' is deconstructed in LA CONFIDENTIAL to such an extent that you may be forever cured of simplistically booing the nominal 'bad guy': readers who need to believe in the good old days of white hats and black hats (and I'm not sneering at this fundamental human need at all) are advised to steer clear. However, if you can steel yourself for a very dark look at cops, crooks and the terrible hidden price of celebrity, you'll be amply rewarded with a masterpiece that will haunt you for years and years. You can read this independently of the rest of Ellroy's 'LA Quartet' and AMERICAN TABLOID, but my guess is, after finishing this one, you won't want to. All hail King Ellroy.
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Summary: Ellroy's Illiad - The Greatest of the Great
Review: I don't have the vocabulary to praise this book enough. I first read this book because I loved the movie (I've seen it more than 10 times!). I read it the second time to go deeper into Ellroy's obsessive, psychotic L.A. And while the movie (amazingly) prepared me for the Ellroy experience, the book's plotting is infinitely richer, more vast, more all-embracing of the "dark places" of the American psyche. The characters are tortured and infinitely complex. The three-cop structure is the same as in the film, but on paper, Ed Exley, Bud White and Jack Vincennes are among the most profound and interesting characters in American fiction. A caveat: The book is not easy. There are so many characters, I found myself wishing for a "dramatis personae" at the beginning of the novel, something I could reference when I got temporarily lost in this vast maze of a novel. But don't let this intimidate you. The serpentine plots converge; the horror unfolds, and nothing can prepare you for the tragic denoument. Don't miss it. One thing I promise: if you finish this book, you'll go back to the beginning, to the "Dahlia" herself, mute muse of your own dark places.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, really well written.
Review: This was my first book by James Ellroy, but it won't be the last. The story was well done. I liked his quite-unique writing style and how he based the book on a chronological timeline. His writing is not for the politically correct or easily offended as it includes lots of racial slurs. That adds a sense of realism to the story, since it takes place in the (much) less PC 1950's and is based on cop's lingo of the time. Another Ellroy trait I liked it that at numerous points during the story he summarized where things were for the reader. He did a good job of this, not making it seem too obvious; normally these reports were presented as newspaper clippings. They were necessary since the plot is quite intricate. In short, L.A. Confidential was great and I look forward to reading Ellroy's other mystery/thrillers.
Rating:
Summary: This book will blow you away!
Review: As a huge fan of film noir and a sometime writer focusing on short crime stories, I was in awe of this book. At first I was daunted by the size of this volume, but I loved the movie so I figured I'd give it a shot. Dark, complex, full of flawed heroes, this book was the DEFINITION of noir. I dove into Ellroy's detailed explanations of why his characters are the way they are. I found myself holding my breath during the action scenes as if I were a hack reporter for a scandal rag watching the events unfold before me. Ellroy's tense prose made me feel a part of the investigation behind the Nite Owl murders. I wanted this mystery solved as surely as if I were investigating it, thanks to the caliber of writing (and Ellroy has a gift of transporting you to L.A. in the 1950's...opening this book is like jumping in a time machine). All-in-all a top-notch, must-read by the best crime writer of our age
Rating:
Summary: The grand narrative lives on !
Review: Undoubtedly L.A. Confidential is both a pleasurable and stimulating read. The brilliant way in which Ellroy has constructed the story means that at every turn one becomes increasingly more amazed at how such a complexly interwoven plot remains so easy to follow and understand. The two protagonists, Bud White and Ed Exley (for those who have only seen the movie, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce respectively) are expertly used to provide the basis for an excellent and ever shifting battle between brawn and brain. James Ellroy brings to life the seedy L.A. underworld in a throng of ponography, drugs, violent crime, and police corruption. And although this a genre piece the reader unfamiliar with crime fiction will no doubt discover that at the heart of L.A. Confidential lies a great tale. It is worth reading for this fact alone.
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