L.A. Confidential
James Ellroy · first published 1990 · ISBN 9780375402135
Three cops in 1950s Los Angeles, each corrupt in different ways, become tangled in a murder investigation that pulls them toward truth or deeper into the machinery of their own deception. Ellroy builds a Los Angeles where sex, violence, politics, and narcotics money form the actual government, with the LAPD as its instrument.
On our lists
The Best Crime Novels of the 1990s
Ellroy's staccato, telegraphic prose strips away sentimentality. He shows cops as men pursuing power through violence while telling themselves stories about justice. The novel's ambition matches its execution, making it one of the few crime novels that feels genuinely important.