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L.A. is the perpetual dark heart of crime writing
- neonate 7y agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20191020022021/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2019-10-17/crime-books-noir-la-michael-connelly https://web.archive.org/web/20191020022021/https://www.latim...
- Overtonwindow 7y agoI think Los Angeles with its myriad of personalities, neighborhoods, and cultures, makes an excellent setting for crime writing. I’m reading the latest Michael Connelly right now and it’s just fascinating learning more about Los Angeles.
- whalesalad 7y agoAny other recommendations by him? I grew up here and would love to read some cool crime thrillers that are close to home.
- vixen99 7y agoHave almost everything he's published. Aside from The Poet and The Narrows (my loss probably) I would say take your pick. Connolly's a masterful writer and stylist which I've found means that he's rewarding to reread, not something I can say about some other best selling authors.
- mdorazio 7y agoIt helps that huge segments of the city are basically expensive ghettos with storied histories of racial tensions, crime, gangs, and drugs. And it doesn't hurt that the LAPD has such a bad reputation. It really is an easy place to set a crime story and have it still be believable.
- mc32 7y agoBut why not Chicago?
- SamReidHughes 7y agoWhat does Chicago have? Banks?
- mc32 7y agoLots of mob and machine politics and run of the mill crime good for pulpy novels.
- SamReidHughes 7y agoYeah, bigcorps, corruption, and a big shiny ball. L.A. has serial killers, disaffected body builders, criminal surfer gangs, kung fu sidekicks, crooked magicians, new age cults, disgruntled aerospace employees, gratuitously wealthy people, pornographers, and loads of driftwood in orbit around Hollywood, flitting from project to project. Chicago has Catholics and Perogies. Any crime story set in Chicago could be better done in New York or Philadelphia.
- fumar 7y agoThat is one interesting and reductionist take on Chicago. The south and west sides of the city are cultural melting pots. The north side also has its ethnic enclaves. I am not defending Chicago but as the only other true metropolis outside of NYC, its more than the two things you listed. The architecture alone gives a great backdrop to any story.
- SamReidHughes 7y agoIt certainly is reductionist!
- werber 7y ago
- mturmon 7y agoSome good recommendations in the article. As a resident, I have enjoyed Joe Ide and especially Walter Moseley’s writing and sense of place. Not to mention all the crime TV and movies set here, from Chinatown to the Rockford Files.
- thedailymail 7y agoRemarkable to read a longish article on LA and noir and not find a single mention of James Ellroy.
- EliRivers 7y agoExcept, perhaps, this one: Like the men and women in its crime novels, the city, a multicultural diary of splendor and hurt, is its own character: grisly, sinister, smooth, sly, urbane, verbose, sparse, fatalistic, celebratory, hopeful and occasionally as doomed as James Ellroy’s "Black Dahlia."
- thedailymail 7y agoHunh - I missed that!
- AceyMan 7y agoI haven't read much L.A. based crime, tbh, but it's nice to see noir / pulp draw its fans in. I'm one, 100%. My man for urban street crime is George Pelecanos. I think I've read damn near all his stuff. His prose hits all the notes to convey an era, a mood. And the plots are excellent and I like his protagonists. Most settings are Baltimore/D.C., from where he hails. Good stuff. <would not consider downstream posts with fave authors off-topic even if they didn't RTFA (I did, first, honest).> [edit: I transplanted to LA around the 2nd bubble pop, just random timing]
- knbknb 7y agoDidn't know this name. I just learned that he was a co-writer for the TV series "The Deuce". Very interesting
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mannykannot 7y agoI would guess that one factor is Hollywood acting as an incubator for up-and-coming writers - the article hints as much.
- cafard 7y agoRoss MacDonald is worth a look, too.