Customer Reviews

Blood's a Rover

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So pleased to finally get around to reading this one, after really enjoyed reading the first two volumes of Ellroy's American Underworld trilogy. It's been a while though, and all I could honestly remember is the intensely dark subject matter (heroin section in Vietnam in The Cold Six Thousand springs to mind), the clandestine phone conversations between DH and JEH and the big subverted historical set pieces. More of the same was the least required.
An explosive start sets the tone, with leads trailing off everywhere from an armoured car heist. We are introduced to Don Crutchfield, a low-life peeper and tail man, as well as renewing acquaintances with Dwight Holly and Wayne Tedrow Jr. The action splits between them in the same formula as the first two books - no White Jazz-like stylistic curveballs here.
Race and politics are the big themes, mirroring the time period. The narrative is pure Ellroy: unsympathetic, unapologetic and angry. To be honest, I found the rhetoric a little too violent at points. But you can't dilute The Demon Dog. I think that's why the Hollywood attempts at his books have always been lacking in places for me. There's no Ellroy in there; his voice is as important as the characters in terms of this book's success. (I've always felt LA Confidential `the book' and `the movie' are two totally separate beasts: the film takes a very good plot and gives it a new coat.)
I found the story gripping. It was masterful how at the end of the journey Ellroy attempts to let the reader in on what drives these men to do the things they do. Crutchfield comes off most sympathetic - "So women will love me." I wondered if there wasn't an autobiographical edge to his character - a young man lost in LA, like Ellroy was lived back in the day. A shared indulgence in peeping is another tantalising overlap too.
A really satisfying end to a superb trilogy. Can't imagine where Ellroy can go from here.