Synopsis
James Ellroy's back. Another epic of blood and betrayal. Might be his best novel yet.
Ellroy, the self appointed "greatest crime novelist who ever lived," completes his trilogy of "American Underworld" novels (AMERICAN TABLOID, THE COLD SIX THOUSAND) with a gripping masterpiece that tracks the killer instinct which pervaded the nation in multifarious forms during the tumultuous years of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Ellroy, who would scornfully regard the superfluous prose of that last sentence, applies his patented rapid-fire patter to this depiction of the cross-hatched paths of deception cut by dysfunctional icons including Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, and Howard Hughes, as well as fictional creations such as FBI agent Dwight Holly, hardcore commie Joan Rosen Klein, L.A. private snoop Donald Crutchfield, and Vegas henchman Wayne Tedrow. An attempt to summarize the labyrinthine plot would be an effort in futility equal to the relentless, doomed endeavors these characters make to try to force their morals on the rest of existence. Suffice to say that the action kicks off with an invigorating daylight heist of an armored car and swells to encompass Hughes's extremely hostile takeover of Las Vegas, the mob's illicit attempts to build a casino empire in the Caribbean, Hoover's maniacal methods of surveillance and control, and the always sinister conduct of the avaricious citizens of Ellroy's favorite lair, Los Angeles. Read it.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2009-09-22 | | Series: | American Underworld Trilogy |
| Size | | Length: | 640 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.8 in | | Weight: | 34.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
A stand-alone sequel to the Time magazine Best Book American Tabloid and the Los Angeles Times Best Book The Cold Six Thousand traces the 1968 collision of a Klan-raised FBI agent, an ex-cop heroin runner, and a divorce lawyer front-man with ties to the Kennedy assassinations.
Industry Reviews
"[BLOOD'S A ROVER is] very much a gangster novel, a political novel, a tragic-comedy, a poignant love story--and remarkably entertaining no matter how you slice it." (starred review)
(08/01/2009)
"Though the book isn't without its faults...It's impossible not to read it with a sense of awe. The violence is as frequent as it is extreme, the treachery is tremendous, and the blending of cold ambition and colder political maneuvering is brazen, all of it filtered through diamond-cut prose. It's a stunning and crazy book that could only have been written by the premier lunatic of American letters." (starred review)
(06/29/2009)
"BLOOD'S A ROVER...[is a] cocktail of speculative pop-pulp fiction, conspiracy-theorist wet dreams and a beguiling alternative history."
(09/17/2009)
"BLOOD'S A ROVER [is] an even wilder ride through history than its extravagant predecessors....[It] compresses vast amounts of incident and information into every paragraph, offering the reader a singular experience: total immersion in the details and ambiance of the Nixon era....Ellroy's bleak, brooding worldview, his dense, demanding style and his unflinching descriptions of extreme violence will almost certainly alienate large numbers of readers. But anyone who succumbs to the sheer tidal force of these novels will experience something darker, stranger and more compelling than almost anything else contemporary fiction has to offer."
(09/22/2009)
"BLOOD'S A ROVER proceeds as a growing dossier, the subject of which is the dark, deformed heart of America....Drenched in racial insult, passage after passage slams onto the page like a hail of bullets, and you're often forced to go back to examine the blood spatter to take in what just happened. The plot is an ever-growing morass of fortuitous connections, double-dealings, reverses, switched and simultaneous allegiances, coverups, and, of course, wet jobs' assigned, enacted, retracted, fouled up, and...declined."
(09/20/2009)
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