Customer Reviews

Clandestine

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Second novel of James Ellroy, published in 1983, CLANDESTINE develops the themes already present in BROWN'S REQUIEM. Fred Underhill is a young talented cop who believes he has found some clues proving that a serial killer is at work in the Los Angeles area. We are in 1951, in the middle of the Korea war, and the americans see communists everywhere.

In his mystical quest, Fred Underhill will meet Dudley Smith, a L.A.P.D. lieutenant who'll have the career we know under James Ellroy's pen. Smith or/and the author does have an obsession : the "Black Dahlia" mystery he has been unable to solve. It's the second time in two books that Ellroy evokes this affair that will give a few years later its name to one of James Ellroy's most known novels. Another recurrent Ellroy theme appearing in CLANDESTINE is the description of the death of one of the serial killer's victim, similar to the circumstances of the death of the writer's own mother.

Fred Underhill is also a golf addict and a tormented human being who'll seek redemption during the five years he'll pass in order to solve the case he has discovered. I must confess that the last fifty pages of CLANDESTINE are so gripping that I couldn't leave the book for one minute before its ending.

A book to rediscover.

One of my favorites of all of Ellroy's novels. It's an earlier work, but the book is extremely solid. I believe this is the first time we are introduced to The Victory Motel, Dudley Smith, and his groupies. Very entertaining. Some parts are almost gut-wrenching in their humanity. Much of the book is bittersweet. If you are a fan of Ellroy's better known works like LA Confidential and The Black Dahlia -- Clandestine will not disappoint...

One of James Ellroy's first efforts, CLANDESTINE showcases a writing voice not yet matured into the staccato hipster prose of his L.A. quartet or the historical fiction of American Tabloid/The Cold Six Thousand.

That said, it's still a great read (though the romantic sequences between Underhill and Lorna are a bit clunky). The last fifty pages are classic, non-stop page turners. The interrogation scenes with Dudley Smith, Underhill and Eddie Engels are Ellroy-esque and brutal, yet they lack the wit and cold intelligence of the interrogation scenes from L.A. Confidential. Lt. Dudley Smith is a monster, but not quite the cold, calculating beast he becomes in Ellroy's later masterpieces.

For those not acquainted with the earlier works of James Ellroy, this one's a must. As I read this book, I could definitely see stronger beginnings of the voice that now makes Ellroy one of the world's very best.

One of the reasons I love James Ellroy is his unflinching, honest portrayal of what all humans are: flawed, to different degrees. CLANDESTINE, to me, is what begins the L.A. saga, and it is the only way to be introduced to one of Ellroy's best characters: The monster that is Dudley Smith.

Many, it seems, felt the ending wrapped up too neatly or improbably, but it worked for me entirely. It's more than a warm-up for his best, BLACK DAHLIA, and stands on its own as noir. Ellroy shows us yet another facet of self-destruction redeemed in the nick of time so that at least SOME good can come from life's horrid injustices.

On a final note, I must confess, I am a dog lover, and the addition of Night-Train was comically wonderful (read it, and you will know what I'm talking about).

James, you've done it again!

I am in agreeance with the previous reviewer who stated that this book is relatively 'nice' compared with Ellroy's other books. The plot moves along nicely and only falters in its flashback segment to offer some explanation of why 'IT' all happened. A good book that is well worth a read... If you enjoyed other Ellroy novels then you won't be disappointed.

Some of Ellroy's works are interconnected and critics or publishers have distributed his LA novels in the so-called LA Quartet (Black Dhalia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz)or the Dudley Smith Trio (the previous except Black Dhalia). Why Clandestine doesn't appear in any of this series is a mystery to me. Indeed Clandestine can be considered the first chapter of any of the series: it is set in LA in the early 50's, the plot follows similar patterns as the rest of the series (LAPD talented young officer gets into trouble and finds redemption by investigationg a murder), it features the omnipresent Dudley Smith...
Perhaps it is not as mesmeraizing as some of the LA Quartet but it is quite more realistic. It is free of some of the coincidential elements (i.e. officer assigned to a case conected with a crime his father investigated 20 years before)that somehow destroy the coherence in the other novels.
To sum up a fantastic introduction to Ellroy's noir universe.

I read this book after reading "Dahlia", "Confidential", "Big Nowhere" and "Tabloid". And now, I'm almost finished with "Crime Wave" and it all makes sense. "Clandestine," if not his first, is definitely an early work and essential. All of the elements that Ellroy knew (at that time in his life) of his mother's death is in this book. READ THIS BOOK!

This book is a great lead in to Ellroy's brilliant L.A. Quartet, mainly "L.A. Confidential." But this book---a fictional account of the murder of Ellroy's mother---is also a great precursor to "My Dark Places." We get a taste of some Ellroy staples: Dudley Smith and his interrogation techniques, as well as the Victory Motel. This book misses a 5-star rating for one simple reason: the ending is just too simple. Everything falls into place too easily, the ending comes so smoothly it is hardly satisfying. After such a great read, the last part of the book is just too anti-climactic.

After getting hooked on Elroy by watching and then reading LA Confidential, I progressed to the rest of the LA Trilogy. On thier completion I found myself somewhat bemused as to which novel to read next. However, in spite of the old addage, something in the cover of Clandestine called to me. I was not to disappointed. The reader is thrown straight into the seedy world of the Fifties LAPD, and into the mind of an arrogant, officer with designs on quick promotion no matter who gets in the way. His determination for advancement is only equalled by his callous disregard for women. Once again we are confronted by the nemesis, in the shpe of Dudley Smith, who having seen it all, is watchful for our devious hero. The book quickly deels with his quick rise to fame, only to fall from grace even quicker. His time out the force is both mentally and soulfully destroying, and in this time of despair his only hope is to repair his broken marraige and to solve his great case to his own satisfaction, as much to appese his own conscience as to see justice done. The hero's desires are refered to as the "wonder", but the great mystrey left unsolved after this riveting story is how James Elroy can create time and again such vivid pictures through his words.

What begins as a virtually straightforward procedural thriller becomes something altogether more nightmarish and is probably the best of Ellroy's early novels. However, the book fails in that the plotting is creaky and in places so extreme in its many lapses into American Gothic overkill that it almost reads as a parody of the LA Quartet which followed. Nonetheless, there is much to be savoured,not least of which is the earliest appearance in print of the loathsome Lt. Dudley Smith ("lad").The themes, characters and places are very much in tune with the later LA novels and with hindsight this book is definitely a harbinger of what was to emerge in the Quartet