L.A. Confidential

L.A. Confidential

infobox Book |
name = L.A. Confidential
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = James Ellroy
illustrator =
cover_artist = Jacket design by Paul Gamarello
Jacket illustration by Stephen Peringer
country = United States
language = English
series = L.A. Quartet
genre = Novel, crime fiction
publisher = The Mysterious Press
release_date = June 1990
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (hardcover & paperback) and audio cassette
pages = 496 pp (first edition, hardcover)
isbn = ISBN 0-89296-293-3 (first edition, hardcover)
preceded_by = The Big Nowhere
followed_by = White Jazz

"L.A. Confidential" is a 1990 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the third of Ellroy's L.A. Quartet series.

Plot

The story is about Los Angeles policemen in the 1950s who are caught up in a mixture of lies, sex, corruption, and murder following a mass murder at the Nite Owl coffee shop. The story eventually encompasses organized crime, political corruption, heroin, pornography, prostitution, tabloid journalism, institutional racism, plastic surgery, and Hollywood. The novel's title refers to the infamous 1950s scandal magazine "Confidential", which becomes "Hush-Hush" magazine in the novel.

Jack Vincennes is a slick and likable Hollywood cop who moonlights as the technical advisor for "Badge of Honor", a popular "Dragnet"-like television show. Vincennes is connected with "Hush-Hush": He receives hefty payoffs for making orchestrated celebrity arrests, often involving narcotics, that will attract even more readers to the magazine—and more fame to himself.

Edmund Exley, the son of a legendary LAPD cop, is a brilliant detective determined to outdo his father. His intelligence, his education, his glasses, his insistence on following regulations, and his cold demeanor all contribute to Ed's social isolation from other officers. He increases the resentment against him by testifying against cops in a police brutality case (based on the Bloody Christmas incident) early in the novel.

Wendell "Bud" White, one of the most feared men in the LAPD, is a six-foot tall muscleman. His partner is convicted by Exley's testimony and expelled from the police force, and Bud vows revenge. He has a violent obsession against men who abuse women, counterbalanced by his tenderness towards the victims. His temper often overpowers his thought.

At different intervals, the three men begin to investigate the Nite Owl case, which reveals deep ties of corruption to within their own precinct.

Real life characters, influences and events

*Mickey Cohen
*Jack Dragna
*Johnny Stompanato
*Spade Cooley
*Howard Hughes
*William H. Parker
*Robert Harrison (publisher)

Film adaptation

The book was adapted for a 1997 film of the same title, directed and cowritten by Curtis Hanson and starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn and Danny DeVito.

In 2003, the film was adapted into a pilot for a TV series, with Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Vincennes. [ [http://imdb.com/title/tt0455143/ L.A. Confidential (2003) (TV)] at the Internet Movie Database] The pilot flopped, and the series was not picked up.

References


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