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A review by mawalker1962
My Dark Places by James Ellroy
4.0
In 1958, Jean Ellroy was murdered. Her son, James, age 9, already troubled in the wake of his parents' acrimonious divorce, quickly spiraled out of control as he lived lived a chaotic life with his loving, but ineffective father. In spite of months, indeed. Years, if investigation, Jean's killer was never found.
James was simultaneously obsessed with and repelled by the memory of his murder. He became obsessed with crime novels and police procedurals. By the time he was in high school, he was a small-time criminal and alcoholic drug addict.
Eventually Ellroy got clean. He began to write crime novels (L.A. confidential, The Black Dahlia). And he decided to stop running from his mother's ghost. Teaming with a retired LA detective, thirty years after her death, Ellroy began to investigate the case.
This book was often more detailed than I cared for. (And I don't mean crime scene details; I mean that I learned more than I needed to know about minor characters). But it was beautifully written in Ellroy's hard-boiled style. In the end, he provides a fascinating picture of how violent crime guts the lives of survivors and of the workings of homicide investigations. And we know understand how one of our era's most gifted crime writers was made.
James was simultaneously obsessed with and repelled by the memory of his murder. He became obsessed with crime novels and police procedurals. By the time he was in high school, he was a small-time criminal and alcoholic drug addict.
Eventually Ellroy got clean. He began to write crime novels (L.A. confidential, The Black Dahlia). And he decided to stop running from his mother's ghost. Teaming with a retired LA detective, thirty years after her death, Ellroy began to investigate the case.
This book was often more detailed than I cared for. (And I don't mean crime scene details; I mean that I learned more than I needed to know about minor characters). But it was beautifully written in Ellroy's hard-boiled style. In the end, he provides a fascinating picture of how violent crime guts the lives of survivors and of the workings of homicide investigations. And we know understand how one of our era's most gifted crime writers was made.