LA Confidential
First edition cover
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| Author | James Ellroy |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jacket design by Paul Gamarello Jacket illustration by Stephen Peringer |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | L.A. Quartet |
| Genre | Crime fiction, noir, historical fiction |
| Publisher | The Mysterious Press |
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Publication date
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June 1990 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) and audio cassette |
| Pages | 496 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardcover) |
| OCLC | 21041119 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3555.L6274 L18 1990 |
| Preceded by | The Big Nowhere (1988) |
| Followed by | White Jazz (1992) |
L.A. Confidential (1990) is neo-noir novel by James Ellroy, and the third of his L.A. Quartet series. James Ellroy dedicated L.A. Confidential "to Mary Doherty Ellroy". The epigraph is "A glory that costs everything and means nothing—Steve Erickson."
The story revolves around a tight knit group of LAPD officers in the early 1950s who become embroiled in a mix of sex, corruption, and murder following a mass murder at the Nite Owl coffee shop. The story eventually encompasses organized crime, political corruption, heroin trafficking, pornography, prostitution, and Hollywood. The title refers to the scandal magazine Confidential, which is fictionalized as Hush-Hush. It also deals with the real-life "Bloody Christmas" scandal.
The three protagonists are LAPD officers. Edmund Exley, the son of legendary detective Preston Exley, is a "straight arrow" who informs on other officers in a police brutality scandal. He is first and foremost a politician and a ladder climber. This earns the enmity of Wendell "Bud" White, an intimidating enforcer with a personal fixation on men who abuse women. Between the two of them is Jack Vincennes, who acts as more of a celebrity than a cop, who is a technical advisor on a police television show called Badge of Honor (similar to the real life show Dragnet) and provides tips to a scandal magazine. The three of them must set their differences aside to unravel the conspiracy linking the novel's events.
The book was adapted for a 1997 film of the same name, directed and co-written by Curtis Hanson and starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn and Danny DeVito. The movie was universally acclaimed. It was nominated in nine Academy Award categories. Kim Basinger won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film. Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland won the Oscar's Best Adapted Screenplay.
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