08/23/2005 2:30 PM
Posted by VeggieSteph

White Jazz by James Ellroy

James Ellroy wrote gritty and twisted before Chuck Palahniuk knew his ABCs. I first read The Black Dahlia a few years ago after a friend recommended it to me. Ellroy’s writing hit me like a ton of bricks square in the face. I was hooked.

Ellroy writes about Los Angeles in the 1950s. (Remember L.A. Confidential? He wrote the book.) The language is fast and clipped; it’s almost staccato in your head. There are tough characters, gorgeous broads, and lots and lots of gunplay. While White Jazz wasn’t quite The Black Dahlia, the feeling was still there.


White Jazz is the story of Lt. David Klein. He’s a dirty cop, a sometimes mob enforcer, and he’s got favors out with everyone. He gets an assignment from Ed Exley (think Guy Pearce from L.A. Confidential), who is now Chief of Detectives, to solve a burglary case involving a family who has an “in” with the South LA cops. The more he uncovers, the deeper in trouble he gets, and pretty soon everyone wants him. The cops want him quiet cause he knows too much, the Feds want him to testify, and the mob wants him dead. There’s a gorgeous girl involved, who gets him into more trouble with Howard Hughes, and a bit of the incestuous with his sister (another Ellroy trait). All he can do is double-cross, play his cards, and keep pedaling. If he knocks a few heads, shoots a few people, and breaks a few arms in the process, so be it.

White Jazz doesn’t have as much gore as the Dahlia, but the story is brutal just the same. Ellroy has a formula of sorts, the rogue tarnished cop, the beautiful broad, the dirty mob guys, it’s all here. Even so, the story is fresh. It’s a tight, easy, and fast read that makes you feel like you read a Humphrey Bogart movie. That’s golden and on the QT.