Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This is a great follow up to The Big Nowhere -- and I have to say that it's even more complex than the movie. It spans a much longer period and is filled with many more characters... Every character becomes significant. If Ellroy mentions a name, remember it -- it will undoubtedly be important later.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute masterpiece.
Review: To the people out there who loved the movie, you'd be a prize moron not to read the book. Rapid fire dialogue, vivid depictions of life in an era long gone, creeps on both sides of the law and more subplots than you can shake a blood-stained gold shield at, this one is easily the best of Ellroy's four book L.A. series. I read it six times AND IT KEEPS GETTIN' FUNNIER EVERY TIME. I thought they'd never get around to making that film. Glad they did. I can't wait for L.A. NOIR.
Rating:
Summary: A definite noir classic that far outshines the movie
Review: Like a lot of you who are just now thinking about buying the book, I got interested in it because of the movie. I picked it up one week before the movie was released on home video. From its opening prologue that seemingly has nothing to do with the rest of the book except to set a quick, violent tone to the dripping irony of the final pages, I was completely sucked into the book. Ellroy's prose style is quick and to the point. As a narrative voice, think Kevin Spacey's character in _The Usual Suspects_. The dialogue, though a bit cliched, is still more original and moving than anything heard from the movie screen. The dialogue is a bit unnecessary anyway, considering the fact that so much of Ellroy's novel is about what is not said both between two people and between a man and his own mind. For those who found the movie far too confusing, I'm not surprised. I understand the need to whittle down a lot of the book's 400+ pages, but much of the rewiring that the screenplay writers had to do just blows up in their faces when one considers how much better the book does with its intricate plot. Trust me, the book is by far a less confusing and more satisfying story. Some advice before you pick up the book: get a notepad and be ready to write down each character's name and some detail as he/she is introduced to you. Who knows? You just might be able to solve the case before our "heroes." Overall, I'd say _L.A. Confidential_ is a crime novel that will be read many years later as a noir classic harkening back to the days of Hammett's own _Maltese Falcon_.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling crime fiction marred by a few too many characters
Review: ....and the author's inability to create female characters that don't follow the Madonna/Whore dichotomy. Nevertheless, this was a wonderful book. 1950 LA comes alive in all its seedy glory. beginning, with its rural motel shootout, Ellroy's clipped diction draws you in , grabbing you by the throat and doesn't let go until the end. Although the body count is high and many of the people are, to put it mildly, quite distasteful, a splendid time will be had by all. This isn't noir; this is noir noir.
Rating:
Summary: Studly unmasking of more real crap in L.A.
Review: Excellent read (though a bit long past page 400); vivid and full of teeth (literary and literal); carefully plotted and observed; dense and urgent; screen version a fraction of the novel's scope in plot and sense of decay and hypocracy (which is saying something, honest). Get it and read it, yes.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest cop novel ever.
Review: It is a tribute to the brilliance of Brian Hegeland and Curtis Hanson that they were able to make ONE movie out of this book, since it easily contains the material for a trilogy of films. What makes L.A. Confidential such a powerful, intensely satisfying "read' is the way it follows the destinies of three very different,amazingly complex men,all cops, through seven years of the history of Los Angeles and America. Exley gets the whole world, but has to sacrifice all of his ideals and loved ones in the process. Vincennes loses everything, but regains his honor. Finally Bud White, a tormented man, wrestles his demons to the ground and finds love and inward peace. I wish i could justice to the thematic and allegorical riches of this book in a review of this size, but thats almost impossible. I just want to tell everyone who saw the movie, READ THE BOOK..its almost unforgettable.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic, satisfying crime novel - if you can follow it!
Review: This novel is FANTASTIC! Because it is so dense and complex, getting to the end is truly gratifying - this is the most satisfying Ellroy novel that I've read yet! I read it once and immediately wanted to read it again. (It's kind of like the movie "Usual Suspects" - the first time you see it, you're not quite sure you got it all.) Reading this book a second time only enhanced my enjoyment of it. I agree with the other reviews - Ellroy's greatest strength is in character development. Each of his characters is remarkably intriguing, particularly Jack Vincennes. (The movie version really doesn't do this character justice!) I also really enjoy Ellroy's bang-bang, minimalist style of writing. He gets to the meat of the story right from the start. This novel is NOT for the laid back reader - it's like a pure adrenaline rush from start to finish. The story is a truly thrilling, almost dizzying, portrayal of a corrupt Los Angeles in the 1950s. A quick note: some friends of mine have said that they couldn't follow the movie and therefore weren't really able to enjoy it - I told them that they probably wouldn't like the book at all. The book really is a confusing web; the movie is quite easy to follow in comparison.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed, but intelligent and gripping crime drama
Review: Set in the dark, bloody atmosphere of 1950's Los Angeles, James Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential" is a brutal, harsh, unsettling, disturbing, confusing, intelligent, and, ultimately, masterful crime drama. The plot is a thickly layered story involving three detectives, Edmund Exley, Wendell (Bud) White, and John Vincennes, and their exploits considering their own lives during the timeframe of the novel. The plot also revolves around the slayings of six people at the Nite Owl, a diner whose infamy spreads throughout the course of the novel. This is just one of many different plots that intertwine to make an incredibly complex novel, filled with hundreds of characters rich in depth and characterization.
Ellroy's genius lies in his development of plot and characters. This novel is wildly different from the movie and its screenplay. The screenplay was a masterpiece, simply because Ellroy's novel is basically unfilmable in its present state. The novel is too dense, too dark, and too complex to make a movie that makes any sense within time constraints. Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson deserve considerable credit for taking this mammoth novel and condensing, stripping away plot lines and characters by the dozen. Some of the changes they made were masterful, some detract from the overall impact of the film. Ellroy's fixation is on characters. He has many of them, all deeply constructed. No character is without flaws. The character most interesting in this maze is Jack Vincennes, the smart detective whose life takes a variety of turns throughout the novel. It should be mentioned the novel is ABSOLUTELY nothing like the movie. The movie takes place during months; the book takes 7 years to complete its saga. The character of Jack Vincennes in particular is investigated much more in depth through Ellroy's version. The matter of Ed Exley's father, the involvement of Hollywood, and a Hispanic woman named Inez Soto, all missing from the movie, are central characters to this novel.
Somehow, Ellroy keeps all these characters straight. He has a shocking conclusion, and truly keeps a reader riveted. At its dullest, L.A. Confidential can be a confusing mess, but Ellroy always sprinkles scenes of savage violence and brutality to waken the reader. It must be said that this is not a novel for the faint-of-heart. Ellroy exposes the bigotry of 1950's Los Angeles through its hatred of blacks, homosexuals, and other minorities. This, combined with plots on smut, rape, murder, and the like, make this a book which is very powerful, graphic, and brutal. Ellroy's style is not beautiful, but rather shocking. He tries to stun the reader into submission, using very little description but rather blunt, graphic passages to get his point across. His only distinctive writing style is his use of newspaper clippings to tell about 10% of his story: the method is remarkably effective, since it diverts the reader from the profane, blunt, and direct writing of Ellroy just enough to keep the reader's sanity.
This is not an easy book by any means. Its language is very difficult, for it is colloquial profanity, mixed with language so graphic that the book takes on a dirty, forbidden tone. Its positives, however, far outweigh its negatives. It is truly a work of art, not graceful, but brutally intelligent. The plotlines are brimming with inspiration and rich color, the characters are distinctive and memorable, and the conclusion is a devastatingly pure and noble ending. Ellroy is a master of writing, and during most of the book, it shows. He is inspired at the end, taking his myriad of loose ends and combining them into one glorious plot that leaves the reader in awe.
The trick is getting to the end. The plot lines are wickedly confusing; Ellroy challenges the reader to keep with his pace. Moreover, the action is spread out over a long period of time. Many characters, though provided for color, are expendable, and it is easy to see why Hanson and Helgeland condensed the novel so much. It is quite difficult to get to the end of this book while understanding all of the numerous happenings and plots. However, despite the numerous flaws, and the often dull spots in the middle (though combined with gratuitous violence and sex), L.A. Confidential is a winning story and novel after everything is said and done. It is quite memorable, simply because it works at the end, it is an enjoyable, though exhausting ride. The violence and sex, although gratuitous, makes a rich atmosphere unparalleled since the days of Hammett and Chandler. It is a read quite worth it.
Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Read
Review: If you thought the movie had lots of characters and subplots, it doesn't even come close to the number of them in the book. But it just makes the book that much better. What a great book. I recommend it to anyone. It is now of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: A most talented writer with deep thoughts and writing tech!
Review: J.E. uses two different pens writing this great novel. Most part of it is just like a simplified manuscript which provides the actual directions later for the screenplay writer(s), movie director, actors/actresses and so forth; perhaps that's why the movie could be so nearly perfect. Those CONFIDENTIAL investigation reports filed for the three main characters and the articles from hush-hush and newspapers are in a total different and more normal/formal writing style that J.E. shows that he could write normally. The novel itself is just like a silk thread of cocoon gradually pulls along in either fast or slow paces and finally shows you the silk worm inside. I've never seen any writer could put himself in three main characters' bodies and never lose the focus of their identities and/or himself. Very good read.
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