Crime Fiction, S/D

tbf so is Point Blank!

To Each His Own is a great novel, and it ends on quite the note, both in terms of how the story ultimately concludes, and in terms of the implied behavior of secondary characters. i appreciate a take on the mafia which is almost entirely on the outside looking in, from the perspective of a civilian who is naive to the full extent of their evil. i like a good counterpoint to the usual; for example i enjoy a lot of the recent mafia/camorra shows from italy but the protagonists of almost all of them are so vile and the shows are so devoid of humor and indulging in such pitch-black tone that it can be p draining.

new James Ellroy The Enchanters is so good. the vibe is whiskey & dexadrine & no sleep for three days straight

I’m a Marilyn fan and did not expect to enjoy Ellroy’s dyspeptic version of her because, well, it’s Ellroy & it’s going to be gross. but the level of lore he’s woven in is nuts and I have to admit it’s almost classic-Ellroy level good. The amount of research it must have taken to be able to riff like this and resolve 75 plot threads cohesively? highwire shit. Hats off.

That being said I dunno if I could recommend it to anyone who isn’t already an Ellroy diehard. It prob won’t win him any new fans.

*dexedrine

also i read somewhere that Ellroy still writes all of his books longhand

Jordan Harper, She Rides Shotgun - solid B+, kind of feels like a novel cousin of that movie Shot Caller.

I saw a copy of that James Ellroy book at the library today but passed.

I like the Jordan Harper — apparently it was reissued in paperback under the title A Lesson In Violence, which is the edition I have. His kinda-sorta follow-up, The Last King Of California, is also really good.

I just read Tana French's latest, The Hunter, which is a sequel to her previous one. It's really good, and/but there's a character who'll have you literally tapping your foot going "Just fucking die already."

found Lady in the Lake (2019) by Laura Lippman a good read