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White Jazz

Part of L. A. Quartet

Author James Ellroy
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Paperback
$19.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
5.1"W x 8"H x 0.8"D   | 9 oz | 24 per carton
On sale Apr 24, 2001 | 368 Pages | 9780375727368
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A novel in The L.A. Quartet. Internationally acclaimed author James Ellroy presents another literary noir masterpiece of historical paranoia.

Los Angeles, 1958. Killings, beatings, bribes, shakedowns—it's standard procedure for Lieutenant Dave Klein, LAPD. He's a slumlord, a bagman, an enforcer—a power in his own small corner of hell. Then the Feds announce a full-out investigation into local police corruption, and everything goes haywire.

Klein's been hung out as bait, "a bad cop to draw the heat," and the heat's coming from all sides: from local politicians, from LAPD brass, from racketeers and drug kingpins—all of them hell-bent on keeping their own secrets hidden. For Klein, "forty-two and going on dead," it's dues time.

Klein tells his own story—his voice clipped, sharp, often as brutal as the events he's describing—taking us with him on a journey through a world shaped by monstrous ambition, avarice, and perversion. It's a world he created, but now he'll do anything to get out of it alive.

Fierce, riveting, and honed to a razor edge, White Jazz is crime fiction at its most shattering.
"One of the great American writers of our time." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"White Jazz makes previous detective fiction read like Dr. Seuss." --San Francisco Examiner

"Riffling, rolling, reeling. . . . Ellroy's best." --The Denver Post

"Riveting. . . . Impossible to put down. . . . An author who breaks all the rules. He's a kamikaze pilot on a collision course with hell. The pen moves madly across the page. . . . A book that is one long scream of rage and emptiness and longing." --The News and Observer
© Marion Ettlinger
JAMES ELLROY was born in Los Angeles. He is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover; and the L.A. Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. He is also the author of two other Freddy Otash novels, Widespread Panic and The Enchanters. He was awarded the 2022 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. He lives in Colorado. View titles by James Ellroy

About

A novel in The L.A. Quartet. Internationally acclaimed author James Ellroy presents another literary noir masterpiece of historical paranoia.

Los Angeles, 1958. Killings, beatings, bribes, shakedowns—it's standard procedure for Lieutenant Dave Klein, LAPD. He's a slumlord, a bagman, an enforcer—a power in his own small corner of hell. Then the Feds announce a full-out investigation into local police corruption, and everything goes haywire.

Klein's been hung out as bait, "a bad cop to draw the heat," and the heat's coming from all sides: from local politicians, from LAPD brass, from racketeers and drug kingpins—all of them hell-bent on keeping their own secrets hidden. For Klein, "forty-two and going on dead," it's dues time.

Klein tells his own story—his voice clipped, sharp, often as brutal as the events he's describing—taking us with him on a journey through a world shaped by monstrous ambition, avarice, and perversion. It's a world he created, but now he'll do anything to get out of it alive.

Fierce, riveting, and honed to a razor edge, White Jazz is crime fiction at its most shattering.

Praise

"One of the great American writers of our time." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"White Jazz makes previous detective fiction read like Dr. Seuss." --San Francisco Examiner

"Riffling, rolling, reeling. . . . Ellroy's best." --The Denver Post

"Riveting. . . . Impossible to put down. . . . An author who breaks all the rules. He's a kamikaze pilot on a collision course with hell. The pen moves madly across the page. . . . A book that is one long scream of rage and emptiness and longing." --The News and Observer

Author

© Marion Ettlinger
JAMES ELLROY was born in Los Angeles. He is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood’s A Rover; and the L.A. Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. He is also the author of two other Freddy Otash novels, Widespread Panic and The Enchanters. He was awarded the 2022 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. He lives in Colorado. View titles by James Ellroy

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