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James Ellroy

LAPD '53 Hardcover – Illustrated, May 19, 2015

by James Ellroy (Author), Glynn Martin for the Los Angeles Police Museum (Author)

4.2 314 ratings

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James Ellroy, the undisputed master of crime writing, has teamed up with the Los Angeles Police Museum to present a stunning text on 1953 LA. While combing the museum’s photo archives, Ellroy discovered that the year featured a wide array of stark and unusual imagery—and he has written 25,000 words that illuminate the crimes and law enforcement of the era. Ellroy offers context and layers on wild and rich atmosphere—this is the cauldron that was police work in the city of the tarnished angels more than six decades ago. More than 80 duotone photos are spread throughout the book in the manner of hard-edged police evidence.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Abrams Image
Publication date

May 19, 2015
Dimensions

6.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1419715852
ISBN-13

978-1419715853
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“LAPD ’53 is richly narrated by the bombastic James Ellroy, for whom a bar is “a dank dive and despair den of the determined dipso.” It’s a narrative-heavy follow-up to the 2004 book Scene of the Crime, also taken from the LAPD archives. . . . It’s true L.A. noir.” ― Los Angeles Times

About the Author

James Ellroy is the award-winning author of 18 books, including The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz, American Tabloid, and The Cold Six Thousand. Ellroy’s new novel, Perfidia,was published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 2014. Housed in the oldest surviving LAPD station, the Los Angeles Police Museum chronicles the formation and development of the LAPD from its beginnings in 1869. Glynn Martin has been in and around the LAPD for more than 30 years and has served as the museum’s executive director for more than a decade.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abrams Image; Illustrated edition (May 19, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1419715852
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1419715853
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.37 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #329,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #175 in Law Enforcement (Books)
- #213 in Law Enforcement Politics
- #3,883 in U.S. State & Local History

Customer Reviews:
4.2 314 ratings

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James Ellroy

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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

4.2 out of 5

314 global ratings

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Amazon Customer

True to time

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2023

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It’s a great book! Pictures are great, and the writing is easy to understand but very interesting. Takes you back to the time the events to place!

2 people found this helpful

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December blue

Good pics

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

The pics are interesting but the writing is beyond dreadful, almost to the point of unreadable.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A great auther

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2023

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Always enjoy reading this auther.

2 people found this helpful

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Patrick King

Ellroy's commentary is the ONLY interesting thing about this collection

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2015

Verified Purchase

If you've read John Butin's L.A. Noir, Glynn Martin's foreword to LAPD '53 is interminable and unintentionally funny. If, like me, you're buying this book for Mr. Elroy's wonderful prose, you will probably get some pleasure out of it. But let me get this across, you need to see these "crime scene" photos about as badly as you need to see another I Love Lucy re-run. There is nothing in these photos of the least interest to crime buffs. I think I can say without equivocation that I have NEVER seen a duller collection of crime scene photos. Anyone can feel perfectly safe leaving this book on their coffee table and allowing their children to peruse it REGARDLESS of the age of the children. Rotten.com this is NOT.

27 people found this helpful

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Laraine Y.

Fast shipping, arrived in excellent condition

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2022

Verified Purchase

Shipping was very fast and the book arrived in excellent quality, would recommend seller to others.

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2019

Verified Purchase

The book was a good read. The write could have done a better job describing the photos. Difficult to determine who was in the photo. I'm glad I bought this book.

3 people found this helpful

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No Crime Scene Tape round this one

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

Like several other reviewers I was disappointed with this book. The premise turns out to very thin, police snaps from LA are probably not too different from any other large city and as these are photos of record any artistic interpretation is more or less forbidden. I was attracted to the title because of James Ellroy, a master of the LA crime writing genre but I found his text rather tiresome though he didn't have much to go on with tired old photos.

Ellroy wasn't able to create sparkling fiction in these pages instead he delivers a rather threadbare hip style of writing with short tabloid style sentences and the vocabulary of thirties hard-boiled 'tec paperback fiction. Here's an example:

'Bunker Hill is gone now. Bunker Hill shabbily thrived in 1953. It was slated for ultimate bulldozing then -- because LA had to build up and out.There were terraced hillsides full of flophouses. They were inhabited by rumdums, hopheads, slatterns, pachucos, fruit hustlers, cough syrup guzzlers and hermaphrodite he-shes. The cribs had to go. The denizens, ditto. Urban expansion beckoned. Development gelt speaks big bucks. Check that dead ginch sprawled in the weeds on West 4th Street. It looks like a sex-snuff snapped by Weegee'.

The book must have been a breeze for Ellroy to write, no need for dialogue, a carefully crafted plot, credible characters as in his fiction. For this book I'll get my roscoe out and put a slug through it.

12 people found this helpful

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Old Blue Suit

Outstanding Historical Reference

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2019

Verified Purchase

The combination of crime scene photographs from the files of the Los Angeles Police Museum and the descriptive text from world renowned writer James Ellroy make this book a must read for anyone interested in the workings of the LAPD in the early 50s. I highly recommend it.

3 people found this helpful

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mister G

Ellroy’s romance with LA – not ‘crime scene chic’

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2015

Verified Purchase

I’m a big fan of JE, and I think he peaked with American Tabloid. His punchy staccato slang delivery has been toned back a little here, but still evident. The point of the book is to get you involved with the action – what message was the hanged suicide in a woman’s bathing costume sending and to whom? did the white gloved robber shot dead on the pavement by the liquor store manager have his girlfriend waiting in the getaway car? and so on. Splatter snaps these are not. Ellroy is looking to engage you in the growth of LA and peep into the sudden end of people’s lives.

Ellroy claims to have been present at each of these scenes as a five year old when the photographs were actually taken so that adds flavour and connection to the narrative. As ever, he eloquently summarizes ghoulishly: “from the time the body is found, to the moment the killer sucks gas in the green room at Big Q” being typically neat.

My take on this book is that it offers a subtle and intriguing visual portal to the era when Ellroy’s books are set. Not an outstanding piece of work, but an alternative offering from a master. He specifically states that he’s looking to rebut crime scene chic (and I think he has succeeded) so if you dig him, you’ll dig this.

8 people found this helpful

Theresa Browning

Delivery was delayed twice and took more than 2 months.

Reviewed in Canada on February 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

It was a Christmas gift and was for leisure reading.

BangBuckz

Odd mix

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2016

Verified Purchase

Interesting photos, would of liked a more straight forward description of the scene, instead of the hammy 50s Street talk, which was fresh at first but became annoying by the 3rd suicide picture.

The foreword and introduction took up the first 50 pages (of a 200 page book) which seemed odd.

I would of preferred more photos and less text, I like ellroys novels, but I was under the impression this was more a photo collection of crimes in LA 1953? Instead I you end up reading a load of over the top Street slang which served no purpose to the photos.

Great coffee table book to flick through but not a recommended read

2 people found this helpful

Danish buyer

Fine service

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 1, 2019

Verified Purchase

Fast delivery. Book quality as promised. Exiting read.

J Faulkner

LAPD '53 as Research Material

Reviewed in Canada on December 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

I will be using this book as research material for college projects.

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