James Ellroy was born in Los Angeles and was consumed with crime novels as a young reader.
His own life was troubled: his mother was murdered when he was young, and the case was never solved.
As a young man, he struggled with drugs and alcohol, unable to come to terms with the emotions surrounding his mother’s murder.
After finding stable work caddying at golf courses, he wrote his first novel, Brown’s Requiem , in 1981.
Several of his novels have been made into films, including Blood on the Moon, Brown’s Requiem, Killer on the Road, The Black Dahlia and LA Confidential , which was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two.
James Ellroy is a novelist, screenwriter, essayist and memoirist.
Many of Ellroy’s novels are crime fiction taking place in Los Angeles that use dense plotting and convey a pessimistic view of the world.
Brown’s Requiem (1981)
Blood on the Moon (1984)
Because the Night (1984)
Suicide Hill (1985)
The Black Dahlia (1987)
The Big Nowhere (1988)
L.A. Confidential (1990)
White Jazz (1992)
Hollywood Nocturnes (1994)
American Tabloid (1995)
My Dark Places (1996)
Crime Wave: Reportage and Fiction from the Underside of L.A. (1999)
The Cold Six Thousand (2001)
Destination Morgue!: L.A. Tales (2004)
Blood’s a Rover (2009)
The Hilliker Curse (2010)
Perfidia (2014)
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