Guess Who's Back...

The Demon Dog is returning to Belfast.

Once again, David Torrans of No Alibis will play host to James Ellroy.

The details:

No Alibis Bookstore are very pleased to announce the return to Belfast of James Ellroy, and to invite you to spend an evening with the man on Thursday 7th October at 7:00PM to celebrate the launch of his latest book, THE HILLIKER CURSE. This event will take place at the Belfast Waterfront Studio. Tickets are now available, priced £8 each.

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed 'LA Quartet': The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz. His most recent novel, Blood's a Rover, completes the magisterial 'Underworld USA Trilogy' - the first two volumes of which (American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand) were both Sunday Times bestsellers.

America's greatest living crime writer gives us a raw, brutally candid memoir - as high intensity and as riveting as any of his novels - about his obsessive search for 'atonement in women'. The year was 1958. Jean Hilliker had divorced her fast-buck hustler husband and resurrected her maiden name. Her son, James, was ten years old. He hated and lusted for his mother and 'summoned her dead'. She was murdered three months later. "The Hilliker Curse" is a predator's confession, a treatise on guilt and the power of malediction, and above all a cri de cuur. Ellroy unsparingly describes his shattered childhood, his delinquent teens, his writing life, his love affairs and marriages, his nervous breakdown and the beginning of a relationship with an extraordinary woman who may just be the long-sought Her. A layered narrative of time and place, emotion and insight, sexuality and spiritual quest, "The Hilliker Curse" is a brilliant, soul-baring revelation of self. It is unlike any memoir you have ever read.

Anyone who attended the BLOOD'S A ROVER lanuch last year will tell you that this is an event not to be missed. Book your spot now by emailing David, or calling the shop on 9031 9607.

And to keep you going until then, courtesy of No Alibis TV, you can check out the man in action.



And yeah, I get the half-assed irony of using my blog to show a clip of the this rascal in which he dismisses "...the internet invaders." What are you going to do, like?

Feckin' Traffic! Bet it wouldn't have held Jack Reacher back, though...

As I rattle out this short post I'm missing what promised to be another great No Alibis event. I was in attendance for the Michael Connelly and James Ellroy ones in 2009 and loved them. And right at this very second Brian McGilloway is chatting to Lee Child in Belfast and I'm not there.

Why?

Because some wing nut crashed his feckin' car on the M1 which led to a queue of rubberneckers coasting along my homeward route at a snail's pace. As a result, I was late home and didn't have enough time to get a quick bite to eat, kiss the kids goodnight and hit the tarmac trail.

So, if you happen to be reading this, Motorway-Prang-Boy, thanks a lot, you tool.

I'd really like to hear how the night went from anybody who managed to make it. If you fancy it, please drop a comment here or even email me a few paragraphs and I'll give you your own post.

In the meantime, I'm going to watch a bit of telly with the missus.

There are worse ways to spend an evening.

Photographic Evidence...

(L-R Nat Sobel, Stuart Neville, James Ellroy and David Torrans)

Some joker said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Fair enough, says me. Makes for a very short blog post when you've photos like these to display. Many thanks to Hilary Knight for sending the pics through.

(Ellroy, Neville and Sobel in deep literary discussion in the super-chilled surroundings of No Alibis.)

The event itself was one of the best I've attended to date. Ellroy is a showman. He didn't read. He performed. During the performance, it struck me; if this writing business hadn't worked out for him, he could have fallen back on a career as an evangelist. Of course, the subject matter of his sermons might have been a bit close to the knuckle. This cat doesn't hold back.

(Sobel, Neville, Ellroy and Torrans a few hours before the big event.)

Stuart Neville did very well as Ellroy's onstage interviewer. With an audience of close to 800 in front of him and James feckin' Ellroy beside him, it couldn't have been easy to play it cool. He fell right into the role, though.

(Ellroy and Torrans waiting for Adrian McKinty to make a bald joke.)

So, Mister Torrans, proprietor of No Alibis bookstore and proven event manager... what's next?

Readings, Readings and More Readings

So, today’s the day of my first reading. Less than four hours from now I’ll be at the Lock-Keeper’s Inn with T.A. Moore. I plan to read a short story from my chapbook, and if there’s time, a short extract from The Wee Rockets; the novel that earned me an Arts Council SIAP award and a literary agent. I’d hoped to bring copies of Possession, Obsession and a Diesel Compression Engine with me to flog, but (possibly because of the postal strike) they didn’t make it from the printers. Ah well.

I don’t seem to be as nervous as I should be. Maybe it's because I spent a year and a half as a kung fu instructor. I’m kind of used to standing at the top of a room and talking about something I’ve studied inside-out for years. But it’ll be interesting to see how I feel when I actually get to the venue. I doubt it’ll run smoothly, but I think I’m a big enough now to get over myself if my reading isn’t on a par with all the great writers I’ve seen at these things over the past two years.

Speaking of which, after my own reading, I’ll be taking a spin over to Lisburn City Library to see a veteran at work. I haven’t seen Garbhan Downey read before, but his material is top notch. Unless he’s speaking in another language, he’s bound to please the crowd.

After his No Alibis Launch for Mystery Man, (Colin) Bateman explained that he let his writing do the entertaining. He’s gifted with a fantastic sense of humour and his readings always earn real belly-laughter. He’s due back in No Alibis on the 16th November at 6PM, incidentally. I’m reading Day of the Jack Russell now. It could well be even funnier than Mystery Man, so do your best to make it to that one. I’ve encouraged my wife to accompany me for the first time since the Connolly and Hughes reading last year. Really looking forward to that.

I’ve mentioned the James Ellroy event more than once, but it’s a very big deal, so bear with me while I mention it again. In fact, just click here to read my article for International Thriller Writers. I devote the first paragraph to where, when and how to get the tickets for The Demon Dog of American Literature’s visit to the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.

And while I’m linking to other sites, check out this post from BlackWaterTown, who’s written a great article on his recent trip to Ireland. Note that he’s taken a certain someone’s advice and called in to No Alibis... It’s nice when people listen to you.

Legendary US crime novelist James Ellroy at Waterfront Hall

(I could introduce the following piece, but I think it speaks for itself in all its PR professionalism. As for what this event is doing for the crime fiction scene in Northern Ireland? Just have a look at the smile on Stuart Neville's face in the accompanying photo [Stuart is the slightly smaller giant on the left]... gb)

Following the success of his recent book ‘The Twelve’, internationally recognised Armagh author Stuart Neville will be joining legendary US crime writer James Ellroy, at the Waterfront Hall on Saturday 7th November.

The evening audience with Ellroy is an opportunity to hear one of the greatest crime novelists in recent years speak about his work, read from his latest and long awaited new novel, ‘Blood’s a Rover’ and listen to his views on crime fiction literature. Local crime novelist Stuart Neville will interview Ellroy as part of the evening.

Ellroy is author of the acclaimed LA Quartet, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz, as well as the first two parts of this Underworld USA trilogy, American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand which were both Sunday Times bestsellers.

The forthcoming event has been organised by Belfast’s specialist crime bookstore No Alibis, a bookshop becoming well known for the role it plays in the crime fiction scene in Northern Ireland. Even the shop itself is the setting for the latest Colin Bateman thriller ‘The Day of the Jack Russell’, which will be released in November.

No Alibis owner and crime fiction guru David Torrans said, “It is the first time that Ellroy has visited Belfast and the event is an opportunity to hear the inspired and critically acclaimed crime fiction novelist face to face. The ‘Demon Dog’ of American crime fiction Ellroy, will be talking about his new book, ‘Blood’s a Rover’, which is the third and concluding part of the ‘Underworld USA’ trilogy.”

“It’s great to have one of our most recent novelists Stuart Neville, interviewing Ellroy as part of the evening. Ellroy himself said of Stuart’s first novel ‘The Twelve’ that ‘it is an all out-terror trip and the best first novel I have read in years,’” explained David.

Stuart will have just have returned from a book signing tour of the US to launch his book there, where it is receiving excellent reviews. It was during one of the booksigning events in Denver, that Stuart met up with the literary giant, Ellroy





“James Ellroy was one of the first supporters of my own work, which was fantastic for a first time author like me. It was so great to finally meet up with him over in the US. I’m really looking forward to the event at the Waterfront Hall, when we will get the chance to hear Ellroy talk more about his work and what inspires him.”

To celebrate Ellroy’s first visit to Belfast, the Queen’s Film Theatre, Botanic Avenue is also showing a special matinee edition of his best known films, the modern classic LA Confidential, on Saturday 7th November at 2pm.

The Waterfront show starts at 8pm. The ticket includes free entry to the Tiger Room after the show to help celebrate the event and will allow guests to mingle with authors from the vibrant Northern Ireland crime fiction scene. Musical entertainment will be provided by The Sabrejets.

Tickets, price £12 are available from Waterfront Hall Box Office and from No Alibis Bookshop, Botanic Avenue, Belfast on 028 9031 9601 http://www.noalibis.co.uk/

ELLROY VISIT JUST GETS BETTER

From the No Alibis newsletter

TO CELEBRATE THE UPCOMING VISIT TO BELFAST BY AWARD WINNING AND CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NOVELIST

JAMES ELLROY

WATERFRONT BELFAST SAT 7TH NOVEMBER 8PM

THE QUEENS FILM THEATRE IS SHOWING A SPECIAL MATINEE EDITION OF THE MODERN CLASSIC

LA CONFIDENTIAL

SAT 7TH NOVEMBER 2PM

Check out these links for more information.

http://www.queensfilmtheatre.com/films/laconfidential/

http://www.noalibis.com/Ellroy.asp

http://www.waterfront.co.uk/whatson/performancedetails.aspx?id=39931

NO ALIBIS BOOKSTORE
83 BOTANIC AVENUE
BELFAST BT7 1JL
david@noalibis.com
ph. 02890-319601
fax. 02890319607

An Interview - Alan Glynn

About Alan Glynn...

I live in Dublin, I’m married and have two small boys. My first novel, The Dark Fields, was published in 2002 and is currently being made into a movie by Universal Studios – though I have been saying that for seven years. My second novel, Winterland, is being published in November by Faber and Faber and in February by Minotaur Books in New York.

Q1. What are you writing at the minute?

I’m about halfway through Bloodland which is a sort of lateral sequel to Winterland. What’s a lateral sequel, you ask. I have no idea. I’m not writing a series in the traditional sense, but some characters from Winterland are carried over and the style and structure is very similar. But whereas Winterland was firmly set in Ireland, Bloodland has a more international dimension and deals with aspects of the global resource wars, and commodity supply chains, especially in relation to illegal mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Q2. Can you give us an idea of Alan Glynn’s typical up-to-the-armpits-in-ideas-and-time writing day?

I get up very early, 4.30-ish, and work until my two boys get up. When they’ve gone to school, I work until early afternoon, at which point the boys re-appear and take over. That may seem very disciplined and structured, but within it lies a universe of chaos – lots of displacement activity, staring at the wall, toast. It depends on what stage of a book I’m at. The further in, the more intense and productive it gets. The very early stages are the hardest, drawing ideas together into something half-way coherent. It’s like trying to pick mercury up with a fork. It often doesn’t feel like work at all and you can easily end up being convinced that you’re clinically insane.

Q3. What do you do when you’re not writing?

I don’t want to sound pretentious, but when you’re a writer, you’re never not writing, it’s always there – but away from the laptop, no surprise, I like reading and watching that latest version of the sprawling Victorian doorstop, the DVD boxset. I like going for walks, plugged into my iPod. I lived in Italy and picked up a love of cooking, so I do that a lot.

Q4. Any advice for a greenhorn trying to break into the crime fiction scene?

Not really. I’ve been at this seriously for fifteen years and Winterland is only my second novel to be published (there are several others in a drawer), so I mightn’t be the ideal go-to guy for advice about breaking into anything. Having said that, I would agree with the idea that you shouldn’t “write for the market”. That never seems to work. Be true to your own style and vision, and don’t give up.

Q5. Which crime writers have impressed you this year?

One is Gillian Flynn, whose Dark Places is a great book that isn’t afraid to mess around with time-frames and the reader’s sympathies. Adrian McKinty is another. His Fifty Grand is a powerful and violent revenge thriller that seems to operate on some kind of rocket-fuel from the very first page. And Megan Abbott is a delight, James M. Cain reincarnated. I’ve read Queenpin and am looking forward to her earlier two.

Q6. What are you reading right now?

Mainly research stuff. I’m reading Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost and also re-reading Michela Wrong’s In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz. What I wish I was reading – and will be soon – is Blood’s a Rover.

Q7. Plans for the future?

Finishing Bloodland is about as much future as I can deal with at the moment - I write painfully slowly so there’s still plenty of it left. I have a couple of screenplay ideas I want to work on, but there’s something quixotic and slightly bonkers about writing screenplays – unless, that is, you happen to be best mates with a studio boss, which I’m not. Whatever the next novel presents itself as, that’s what I’ll be working on. There’s something about the novel form – one hundred thousand words, however many pages, sentences, paragraphs – that is incredibly satisfying to write. If I can keep on doing just that, it’ll be fine by me.

Q8. With regards to your writing career to date, would you do anything differently?

Yeah, I‘d do a lot less sitting around waiting for the phone to ring and fretting about what people might think. I’d waste a bit less time doing unnecessary research and would trust instinct and intuition a bit more. And when Mephistopheles called by the house that night all those years ago, I guess I would have said, ‘OK, feck it, you’re on’.

Q9. Do you fancy sharing your worst writing experience?

Tech-wise, I once lost eighty pages I’d absolutely slaved over – eighty pages, I seem to remember, of the most exquisite, shimmering, Banvillean prose ever committed to a computer screen. Clicked the wrong button or there was a power-cut or something. So I’ve been obsessive about doing multiple back-ups ever since.

Thank you, Alan Glynn!

Blood's a Rover Day

According to Wikipedia, James Ellroy's Blood's a Rover is released today. Why is that of interested to Crime Scene NI? Well, Ellroy is Stuart Neville's favourite writer. See what Stuart had to say in his CSNI review of the conclusion to the American Underworld Trilogy.

Also, Ellroy will do an Irish launch for the book at the Waterfront in Belfast (another top class No Alibis event) where Stuart Neville will interview him on stage. Better get yourself sorted with a ticket soon. Check out this post to find out how.

No Alibis Event - James Ellroy (Updated)

(From the No Alibis Newsletter)

James Ellroy

7th November

8pm

Waterfront Hall, Belfast

No Alibis Bookstore is very pleased to announce that we will be hosting an event with none other than the Demon Dog of American crime fiction, James Ellroy, on November 7th to celebrate the release of the final book in his Underworld USA trilogy, BLOOD'S A ROVER.

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed LA Quartet, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz, as well as the first two parts of this Underworld USA trilogy, American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand which were both Sunday Times bestsellers.

It's 1968. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King are dead. The Mob, Howard Hughes and J Edgar Hoover are in a struggle for America's soul, drawing into their murderous conspiracies the damned and the soon-to-be damned. Wayne Tedrow Jr.: parricide, assassin, dope cooker, mouthpiece for all sides, loyal to none. His journey will take him away from the darkness and into an even greater darkness. Dwight Holly: Hoover's enforcer and hellish conspirator in terrible crimes. As Hoover's power wanes his destiny lurches towards Richard Nixon and self-annihilation. Don Crutchfield: is a kid, a nobody, a wheelman and a private detective who stumbles upon an ungodly conspiracy from which he and the country may never recover. All three men are drawn to women on the opposite side of the political and moral spectrum; all are compromised and ripe for destruction. Only one of them will survive. The final part of James Ellroy's "Underworld USA" trilogy is set during the social and political upheaval of 1968-72. "Blood's a Rover" is an incandescent fusion of fact and fiction and is James Ellroy's greatest masterpiece.

Tickets £12.

Available from No Alibis Bookstore and the Waterfront Hall box office

The ticket includes free entry to the Tiger Room after the show to help celebrate the event. Musical entertainment will be provided by The Sabrejets.



NO ALIBIS BOOKSTORE
83 BOTANIC AVENUE
BELFAST BT7 1JL
david@noalibis.com
ph. 02890-319601
fax. 02890319607

No Alibis - What's Coming Up...

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the Paul Charles event at No Alibis Bookstore last Friday. I welcome comments from anybody who made it, though. Meanwhile, I can still look forward to Paul's appearance at Lisburn City Library on Thursday 1st October at 8PM for a reading and Q&A for The Big Big Reading Group. Admission is free and all are welcome.

And although I missed out on that particular reading (and Liam McIllvanney's) David Torrans has a helluva lot coming up in the next few months:

James Ellroy is coming to Belfast!

Jack O'Connell will be at the shop in November (one of James Ellroy's favourite authors, dontcha know).

CWA winner Denise Mina is also booked in.

John Connolly will launch The Gates in early October.

And looking a little further ahead, Michael Connelly will return to Belfast in 2010 for another No Alibis event.

But wait until you hear this...

David recently had dinner with George Pelecanos. This crime fiction giant and TV writer for the hit series, The Wire, said, "David, I'm coming to Belfast," before David even had a chance to lay out his practiced spiel to persuade the man to come over. Apparently, Michael Connelly had been on the phone to Pelecanos after his successfull appearance in Belfast and sold him on the idea! Go Mr T!!!

You know what... if you're a crime fiction fan, you could do a lot worse than to get your backside to Belfast. Come on. Don't even think of it as a holiday. Move here. Houses are cheap enough right now. What's stopping you?

Stuart Neville, a Star and Still Rising...

Wow! Ahead of the official release date of The Ghosts of Belfast (known as The Twelve in its UK publishing form) Stuart Neville has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, snippets of which I’ve pasted below.

'With this stunning debut, Neville joins a select group of Irish writers, including Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and Adrian McKinty, who have reinvigorated the noir tradition with a Celtic edge... This is not only an action-packed, visceral thriller but also an insightful insider’s glimpse into the complex political machinations and networks that maintain the uneasy truce in Northern Ireland.'

For the whole Publisher's Weekly review, click here.

But that ain’t all. He’s also just announced what must be a dream come true. When JAMES ELLROY comes to Belfast in November, Neville will interview him on stage. (I've told you about that event, haven't I? Well, I'll be mentioning it even more now, as I've my ticket in a secure place and I'm guaranteed a seat now.) I’d be sweating a little at the prospect of interviewing the Demon Dog of American Literature, but maybe Ellroy, a huge boxing fan, will warm to Neville’s ‘pugilist’s build.’

So, congrats to Stuart Neville on all his successes. I just have one question for the guy. What the hell are you going to do next, man?

Are You Ready...?

TICKETS TO THIS EVENT ARE NOW ON SALE AT NO ALIBIS!!!

Call in to the store for yours now!

(Open Monday to Saturday.)

David Torrans has outdone himself yet again. This from his mailing list:

James Ellroy

November

No Alibis Bookstore is very pleased to announce that we will be hosting an event with none other than the Demon Dog of American crime fiction, James Ellroy, in early November to celebrate the release of the final book in his Underworld USA trilogy, BLOOD'S A ROVER.

As with the Michael Connelly event that we hosted earlier in the year, we fully expect this one to grow beyond the confines of the shop, so we would like to gauge interest so that we can find a suitable venue for this once-in-a-lifetime event. If you would like to attend, please click here to send us an email with your details (or send an email to the address at the top of the page with the subject line "James Ellroy 1109", and include your name, phone number and the number of tickets you might be interested in in the body of the email message). We will be in touch closer to the time with a firm date, time, location and ticket price, and people who sign up for this event will be notified before we send the regular email to our wider email group.

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed LA Quartet, The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz, as well as the first two parts of this Underworld USA trilogy, American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand which were both Sunday Times bestsellers.



It's 1968. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King are dead. The Mob, Howard Hughes and J Edgar Hoover are in a struggle for America's soul, drawing into their murderous conspiracies the damned and the soon-to-be damned. Wayne Tedrow Jr.: parricide, assassin, dope cooker, mouthpiece for all sides, loyal to none. His journey will take him away from the darkness and into an even greater darkness. Dwight Holly: Hoover's enforcer and hellish conspirator in terrible crimes. As Hoover's power wanes his destiny lurches towards Richard Nixon and self-annihilation. Don Crutchfield: is a kid, a nobody, a wheelman and a private detective who stumbles upon an ungodly conspiracy from which he and the country may never recover. All three men are drawn to women on the opposite side of the political and moral spectrum; all are compromised and ripe for destruction. Only one of them will survive. The final part of James Ellroy's "Underworld USA" trilogy is set during the social and political upheaval of 1968-72. "Blood's a Rover" is an incandescent fusion of fact and fiction and is James Ellroy's greatest masterpiece.


NO ALIBIS BOOKSTORE
83 BOTANIC AVENUE
BELFAST BT7 1JL
david@noalibis.com
ph. 02890-319601
fax. 02890319607

I imagine Stuart Neville will be there, and Adrian McKinty (very favourably compared to James Ellroy here) will be hopping mad that he's on the other side of the world. (gb)

News Scraps – A Chain of Linkage

Stuart Neville is officially a Rising Star. If you’ve read The Twelve, please stop off at Amazon UK and leave a review for him. More reviews he gets, the more chance he has of becoming THE Amazon Rising Star. A kingpin of debut novelists, so to speak.

Tony Bailie has a story up on the Verbal Magazine website. That’s a prestigious spot to occupy, especially now that the magazine is bi-monthly and they only run one piece of fiction per issue.

And Sam Millar is making waves on the blogosphere ahead of the release of The Dark Place. See what they have to say about him on Liffeyside and Sons of Spade. I’ll have to crack the spine of my copy soon.

I doubt anybody will forget that James Ellroy is coming to Belfast in November. (I’ve a suspicion that Stuart Neville has some impressive news to reveal on that score, but I’ll not speculate on what it might be. Wouldn’t want to steal his thunder, you know?) Tickets will be on sale soon, according to the Waterfront website.

Here’s another big event that slipped under my radar -- Ian Rankin at the Belfast Waterfront as part of the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's.

So there you have it, plenty going on in and around these parts crime fiction-wise.

Stuart Neville Reviews Blood's a Rover by James Ellroy

James Ellroy finally brings us the conclusion to the American Underworld Trilogy, and his most personal novel since his 1987 breakout, THE BLACK DAHLIA. BLOOD'S A ROVER fulfils yet confounds every expectation.

The book takes its name from a line in the A.E. Housman poem, 'Reveille'. The imagery of the title implies the pervasive violence of Ellroy's world, but the wider theme of Housman's poem -- the brevity of life, and the imperative to live it well -- gives a better clue to the soul of the novel.

After a bloody prologue, the story-proper begins in 1968 by introducing Ellroy's triad of protagonists. Cop-turned-narco-chemist Wayne Tedrow Junior is back, older and more battle-hardened than when we last saw him in THE COLD SIX THOUSAND. FBI heavyweight Dwight Holly is promoted to centre stage as he works for and against a fading J. Edgar Hoover. New face Donald 'Crutch' Crutchfield, a young would-be private investigator, stumbles into the murk of Ellroy's American nightmare. We also have the all-star cast of historical figures that is a signature of the trilogy. There's Hoover in physical and mental decline, Howard Hughes at rock bottom, Richard Nixon on the ascendant, and any number of political and showbiz players of the time.

The plot is a classic Ellroy labyrinth: the Mob attempts to create a new Havana in the Dominican Republic; Hoover sets out to bring down the Black Power movement; a body in an abandoned house is connected to Haiti by a trail of hijacked emeralds. These seemingly disparate stories intertwine to form a dense, propulsive narrative that has one constant: Joan Klein, political agitator and object of obsession for all three protagonists.

So far, so Ellroy, you might think. Yes, all the Ellroy trademarks are present and accounted for. Dirty cops, dirtier politicians, brutal violence, booze, drugs, guns, it's all there. But what surprises the reader is that Ellroy takes everything we expect from him and turns it on its head. At first he comforts us with familiar structures and stylistic tics, then in one shocking revelation after another we realise nothing in this story can be taken on face value, not even the narrative itself. When he takes our expectations and uses them against us, it is the work of a master.

And here's the biggest revelation of all: forget everything you think you know about James Ellroy's politics. Those ugly facets of the macho persona he writes so well -- the racism, misogyny and homophobia -- might well have led you to believe Ellroy is so right-wing he makes George W. Bush look like a pinko. But if a novel can give an insight into a writer's true nature, then BLOOD'S A ROVER belies the author's carefully cultivated public image. Ellroy mercilessly examines the cost of fascism to society, and the terrible price the men who misuse power must pay for their crimes. That's not to say Ellroy has gone red on us; the far left is treated with equal disdain as his fictional ideologues prove to be as misguided and self-serving as their real-world counterparts. Taking in the overall arc of the trilogy, the true message becomes clear: those who abuse power to serve their own political and personal agendas will suffer for their sins, whether they lean to the left or the right.

The ferocious polemic of BLOOD'S A ROVER wouldn't have a fraction of its impact if not balanced by its surprising humanity. The character Don 'Crutch' Crutchfield is ostensibly based on a real-life private eye, but the depiction on the page is closer to Ellroy's own confessions of a misspent youth. Crutch is a voyeur who spies on women, tails them, and breaks into their homes. His private eye gig provides a means to scratch this itch. Ellroy has spoken openly about his early days and the unsavoury pastimes he indulged in. Crutch becomes an avatar for the author's younger self, revealing more of Ellroy than any fiction he's written since he confronted his own mother's brutal murder in THE BLACK DAHLIA.

The female characters in BLOOD'S A ROVER stand in contrast to those who populated his earlier works. They are more than objects of desire; they are not there simply to frustrate, entrap and betray the male protagonists. Their roles in the story carry more weight than we have ever seen from Ellroy in the past, particularly the Red Goddess Joan.

The meaning of Housman's poem, that man must not waste his life, begins to resonate as the protagonists strive for atonement against desperate odds. This emotional maturity gives BLOOD'S A ROVER a beating heart that arguably no other novel in James Ellroy's oeuvre has had before. And that heart is what makes it all so visceral, beautiful and horrific. BLOOD'S A ROVER is everything and nothing you wanted it to be, and the trilogy as a whole must be considered a landmark in American literature.

(Many thanks to Stuart Neville [picture above, right] for the CSNI contribution -- gb)