Because the Night [Paperback]

James Ellroy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 18, 2005

A botched liquor store heist leaves three grisly dead. A hero cop is missing. Nobody could see a pattern in these two stray bits of information–no one except Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins, a brilliant and disturbed L.A. cop with an obsessive desire to protect the innocent. To him they lead to one horrifying conclusion--a killer is on the loose and preying on his city. From the master of L.A. noir comes this beautiful and brutal tale of a cop and a criminal squared off in a life and death struggle.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of the great American writers or our time.” — Los Angeles Times

“A blood poet who writes as chain saws crank, Ellroy has vigorously redefined the well-shadowed turf of contemporary crime fiction.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"An undeniably artful frenzy of violence, guilt, and unappeased self-loathing. Ellroy's crime fiction represents a high mark in the genre." --Newsday

“Ellroy rips into American culture like a chainsaw in an abbatoir.” --Time

"He's forged a style uniquely his own. Energetic and abrasive, it comes at us like a speed freak. . . . The power and pull of Ellroy's writing is unmistakable." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Ellroy is the author of some of the most powerful crime novels ever written." --The New York Times

“Garrotte-tight prose. . . . [Ellroy is] a force of nature, stringing together words into barbed-wire lariats which he then uses to choke the bejesus out of you. . . . His novels are all muscle, zero fat.” --Austin Chronicle

"Memorable, stunning, incisive. . . . It is possible, I think, to make the argument that in the past couple of decades, Mr. Ellroy has been the most influential writer in America." --Otto Penzler, The New York Sun

“Nobody in this generation matches the breadth and depth of James Ellroy’s way with noir.” --Detroit News

"Ellroy sprays declarative sentences like machine-gun bullets, blasting to kingdom come all notions of justice, heroism, and simple decency." --Entertainment Weekly

"[Ellroy] can make the night world of sleaze and street monsters come alive on the page." --St. Louis Globe-Democrat

About the Author

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. His L.A. Quartet novels–The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz–were international bestsellers. American Tabloid was Time’s Novel of the Year for 1995; his memoir My Dark Places was a Time Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book for 1996; his most recent novel, The Cold Six Thousand, was a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year for 2001. He lives on the California coast.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400095298
• ISBN-13: 978-1400095292
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #901,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. He is the author of the acclaimed L.A. Qurtet - The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz, as well as the Underworld USA trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand and Blood's a Rover. He is the author of one work of non-fiction, The Hilliker Curse: My Pursuit of Women. Ellroy lives in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars OPUS FOUR, September 4, 2001

By 

Daniel S. "Daniel" (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Because the Night (Paperback)

Second novel of the Lloyd Hopkins saga, BECAUSE OF THE NIGHT has been published in 1984. Like in BLOOD ON THE MOON, James Ellroy has adopted in this book two points of view, Lloyd's and John Havilland's, the killer.

Even if the twists of BECAUSE OF THE NIGHT are highly improbable, the novel still stays as intense as it was when I first read it seventeen years ago (gasp!). Ellroy was then one of the first writers to introduce serial killers in his books and was already a master in describing the psychology of his characters.

What strikes me the most now is the evident relation between the mad psychiatrist Havilland and the writer Ellroy. The symptoms of Havilland's madness are very similar to the creative process of the writer. Havilland tries to recreate traumatic scenes of his childhood by directing "live" the poor souls that have fallen in his trap. How not to recognize here the endless efforts of James Ellroy in order to exorcize his mother's murder books after books ?

So if you have the curiosity to go beyond the main argument of BECAUSE OF THE NIGHT, you will soon find out that this book is not only a unique opportunity given to the reader to analyze Lloyd Hopkins thanks John Havilland's psychological skill but is also a terrifying trip through James Ellroy's own obsessions.

A book to rediscover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pretty good novel . .. but not Ellroy's best., April 24, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Tacoma, WA.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Because The Night (Paperback)

This is a pretty decent mystery, but not nearly as engaging as Ellroy's other works. If you enjoy Ellroy's writing, then by all means, read it, but if you're just getting acquainted with him and want a recommendation, then skip to the L.A. Quartet novels... Then if you find that you enjoy Ellroy's style, you can come back to this one later. As an aside, I've put up a James Ellroy message board which you can visit via Inside the Web. Please visit if you're an Ellroy fan!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and unbelievable, June 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Because the Night (Hardcover)

Sometimes a story is only as good as its villan, and in "Because the Night" the villan is totally unbelievable: A renowned criminal psychiatrist, who is also a psychotic, a talented thief, a drug dealer and a cult leader/manipulator. His motive: the acquisition of data? Please.

I still enjoyed Hopkins as a character, but the whole premis of the book was strained, and there was no opportunity for the main character to really shine. Overall, a weak sister to Ellroy's other Hopkins stories, which are in turn pale comparisons to his other works like "LA Confidential" and "Black Dahlia."