The Big Nowhere
First edition cover
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| Author | James Ellroy |
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| Cover artist | Jacket design by Barbara Buck 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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September 1988 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & paperback) and audio cassette |
| Pages | 406 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardcover) |
| OCLC | 17768709 |
| 813/.54 19 | |
| LC Class | PS3555.L6274 B5 1988 |
| Preceded by | The Black Dahlia (1987) |
| Followed by | L.A. Confidential (1990) |
The Big Nowhere is a 1988 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy, the second of the L.A. Quartet, a series of novels set in 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles. James Ellroy dedicated The Big Nowhere "To Glenda Revelle." The epigraph for The Big Nowhere is a passage from a novel; "It was written that I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice- Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness."
What begins in this novel as two separate tales eventually twist together into one, centered on the efforts of an LA Sheriff's Deputy to capture a brutal sex murderer while serving, somewhat reluctantly, as a decoy for a set-up to expose communists in Hollywood. This young deputy, Danny Upshaw, finds himself on a ride that will force him to confront secrets he has kept his whole life, even from himself. Two other major characters, disgraced former cop, Turner "Buzz" Meeks, now working for both Howard Hughes and Mickey Cohen, and ambitious LAPD lieutenant Malcolm "Mal" Considine, involved in a bitter child custody case, try with varying success to do the right things in an environment of deception, paranoia and brutality.
The story begins on New Year's Eve, as 1949 turns to 1950, and creates a vivid portrait of Los Angeles during that era, from the bebop emanating from the jazz clubs on Central Avenue to the labor union battles facing the Hollywood studios. The entire story takes place in the aftermath of the notorious Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the resultant Zoot Suit Riots, an event that roiled LA for years.
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