Rating: 
Summary: even better than Chandler
Review: Along with Black Dahlia, this is my favorite mystery/crime novel of all time. I like it even better than Chandler or Hammet. It has a sense of "truth" to it that other crime novels lack. It has an almost biblical feel to it that is hard to describe, but I think that anyone who reads it will kno what I am talking about.
Just read it! You may be disturbed but you won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: The best of Ellroy's LA Quartet
Review: Black Dahlia, LA Confidential, White Jazz: Excellent.
The Bg Nowhere: Execptional!
Danny, Mal, Buzz: most compelling characters.
The Red Scare/Homosexual mutilation killings/Drugs/LAPD Corruption/ Obsession on-top-of obsession: Woven together without flaw. The darkest, most depressing of Ellroy's LA Quartet with an ending that sizzles. 6 out of 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Two novels in one, simply too good to put down!!!
Review: I only wish this book could be published under two different titles, but it seems that this is simply the ambitious generosity of Mr. Ellroy. Det. Danny Upshaw is the most persistent police detective ever created other than Det. Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly. Other characters such as Mal, Dudley and Buzz were also figures that could be developed into very interesting main characters of independent novels. Since I gradually got used to his writing style and enjoyed it greatly, I'm going to read all of Ellroy's books one by one to avoid any regret in my life.
Rating: 
Summary: spam reviewer
Review: J. Green "socio-economo-ethnomusicologist" has copied and pasted the same review verbatim for three Ellroy novels ("Scott Turow for the louche set"). While Green may have read one of Ellroy's novels and found it lacking, the review is so bad that it is simply not credible that he or she actually read the other two books reviewed. This amounts to spamming and is not helpful to anyone trying to decide if the books in question are worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: One of the high points of American crime fiction
Review: James Ellroy's so-called "L.A. Quartet" (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz) is one of the seminal bodies of work in American crime fiction. I have chosen to include a review under "The Big Nowhere" not because I feel it is the best book of the four (L.A. Confidential has a broader scope, takes greater risks, and is more compelling); simply, none of the other books moved me as much as this one did.Danny Upshaw, Mal Considine, and Buzz Meeks are among the most vividly-drawn and complex characters ever found in a crime novel. Despite the glaring character flaws in each one of them, some of which border on repugnance, I still managed to empathize with them completely. Ellroy is an absolute master when it comes to tying characters' actions to their various motivations and desires. This gives his works a depth that goes beyond the mere telling of a story. The ways in which Upshaw, Considine, and Meeks relate to the action--the ways in which they internalize it and bend it to their own specific set of needs--force the reader to take a personal interest in them. They are no longer merely the vehicle to draw the reader into the action, as most "detective" characters are in this genre; instead, each one provides a distinct point of view of the action, shaping it as much as they are shaped by it. Not since Philip Marlowe went to jail for Terry Lennox--and Marlowe's own ideals--has a crime novel so tightly woven plot with character. The story itself is too complicated to do justice in a brief review so I won't even try. The sheer number of subplots and ancillary characters could fill out the entire oeuvre of lesser writers, but Ellroy seamlessly integrates it all into a story that will have you playing the angles long after the book is finished. In fact, a second reading is almost necessary to catch all the nuance. If you're a fan of detective fiction, these books are required reading. Even if you're not, Ellroy is a fine writer on any level. If you're squeamish at all, you should take a pass.
Rating:
Summary: Ellroy is Tops
Review: THE BIG NOWHERE is, in my opinion, the best of the LA quartet.
LA CONFIDENTIAL is 2nd, followed by THE BLACK DAHLIA.
I own and have read everything James Ellroy has published.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Crime Saga
Review: This has been the most enjoyable JE story I've read so far (of The Black Dahlia, The Cold Six and American Tabloid.) In terms of structure and narrative this is a tighter novel than The Black Dahlia. The clipped, adjectiveless style of later works is in its developmental stages here. JE writes best in third person, in my opinion.
As well as being a top notch murder mystery, TBN is also a meditation on the less savoury aspects of America's law enforcement agencies and post-war political preoccupations. As with other JE novels I've read, the major characters are deeply flawed, have appalling traits and are blind to their own failings, yet you cant help liking them. There is also enough humour to temper the darkness, and this is a dark novel! If you have to rise early for work, make sure you start it on a weekend, as its hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: A horror story
Review: This is the second in Ellroy's "L.A. Quartet" that began with "The Black Dahlia." This one has three cops (among them, Buzz Meeks, who appears in the following book, though briefly.) involved in fighting Communism and solving a horrible series of killings in Los Angeles in 1950. One thing of note for Ellroy fans, this one has the most unflinching look at Dud Smith as well as lots of screen time for Johnny Stompanato.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to the Big Nowhere
Review: Welcome to Los Angeles, CA, New Year's Day, 1950. The century's half-way point is marked by a grim discovery in West Hollywood: a male corpse, eyes torn out, body riddled with strange bite marks, genitals mauled. Deputy Danny Upshaw, not yet thirty, eager to prove his skill and talent as an LAPD detective, bribes a celebrity coroner so he can examine the body himself... and begins a case that will open a whole wide world of depravity, corruption, vengeance, and death. Happy New Year, and welcome to Hell. Oh, yes, this is a James Ellroy novel. I can't imagine anyone familiar with contemporary literature not knowing his name, for James Ellroy single-handedly resuscitated the mystery-noir novel in the late-80s (and continues to astonish with his work in the late '90s). With his penchant for hipster -cop prose, extreme violence and gore, complicated and lengthy novels, and dozens upon dozens of characters, Ellroy upped the ante for what mystery novels could do and be. This is not escapist fiction--you will probably never encounter a world as dark and unrelenting, or as morally repugnant, as the one depicted in his so-called L. A. Quartet, of which The Big Nowhere is second.
While not as gripping as White Jazz, nor as masterful as L. A. Confidential, Big Nowhere still manages to astound, shock, and satisfy the serious reader. With his spot-on recreation of 1950s Hollywood, Ellroy provides a unique glimpse into the evils of a period we still imagine to be fairly innocent. Ellroy spares no expense in Big Nowhere, kicking ass all over PC historical revisionism, going places with language, character and story that Chandler, Hammett, Cain, etc. would scarcely have dreamed. Along with Det. Upshaw, there is Mal Considine, a DA assistant, still tortured by the fact the woman he once loved was a Nazi whore; her son means more to him than anything. To adopt this boy, he will join forces with paranoid, violent men with hard-ons for busting Commies in Hollywood. One of the most harrowing scenes in the novel is when he and Irish LAPD Lieutenant Dudley Smith--oh, evil, evil Dudley Smith, who appears in more than one Ellroy novel--interrogate a screenwriter and, in the end, force him to name his friends as Communist conspirators. Ellroy shades scenes like this not in a phony tone of black and white, but in those hellish, inescapable greys that damn us all.
Then there's Buzz Meeks, an ex-cop who pimps underage girls to the infamous Howard Hughes, buys off judges, and does strong-arm work for Jewish mobster Mickey Cohen. Buzz is the hero of the novel, and that should give you another idea of what Ellroy's vision of conventional cops'n'robbers morality is. He'll eventually work with Considine and Smith, trying to uproot the perverted Communists at work in the movie industry--but he'll only do it for money. You'll take a tour through black jazz joints, through junkie flophouses, medical examiner labs, through murder sites sprayed with blood, sit in on a art-snuff film, rub shoulders with incestuous men, femme fatales, and meet a killer who wears animal teeth. There are ugly secrets, double-crosses, set-ups; Upshaw goes deep undercover as a Leftist hep-cat and almost gets caught in a love-nest--but he's so tormented by his own sexual identity, he can't go through with what his job requires... But by the last third of the book, things get really complex and confusing, and I found myself drifting. The explanation for everything comes in the final pages, and there is a very good climax, so stick with it. The Big Nowhere isn't Ellroy at his best, but that's still miles ahead of virtually every other crime writer out there.
Rating:
Summary: Left me breathless
Review: What a roller coaster ride! Getting into the rhythm is a bit like watching a production of Shakespeare - you have to get your ear attuned to the language, but once you achieve that, you are off and away and able to immerse yourself wholly in the experience. It takes a while to sort out the parallel plot lines and keep the characters in an orderly arrangement in your head. I even went back and re-read the first 3 chapters after about ten, and re-established them for myself (after that it was all quite clear). I suspect this is a matter of coming to terms with Ellroy's style - once mastered it's not such a big deal. For that reason, LA Confidential, the next book, didn't leave me quite so breathless, but I suspect it may have done if it has been my starting point. Ellroy's setting may be 1950s Los Angeles, and homage may being paid to the noir detectives of earlier eras, but his writing - both language and themes - is graphically contemporary. It has as much to tell us about current values as anything, as well as exposing the corruption and nastiness of a previous era. As someone brought up on a diet rich in the Hollywood dream factory (Dragnet, Perry Mason, and family sitcoms depicting the 'sunny' side of urban America where cops were your friend, and the ranch house in the suburbs an unassailable good) I love this exposition of the seemier side of life - which as contemporary events - eg the Rodney King bashing - show us are no less real. The story was of personal interest to me - the Grand Jury investigations into unions and Hollywood. The hard-bitten cynicism of several of the bad-guy heroes adds edge and bite to the historical facts. Straight after closing the covers on The Big Nowhere, I started LA Confidential, the next in the LA Quartet. I liked it just as much. There is no clear definition of a 'goodie' or 'baddie' in an Ellroy characterisation. Some of the fringe characters seem to get away with being decent (and one-dimensional), but they are only there to serve other purposes when necessary to tie the plot together. Once again, don't read it if you are squeamish about the bizarre and often distasteful things humans can do to one another. Not for the sanctimonious who don't want to believe ill of those we entrust with policing human excess either ! Anyone who loves detective fiction, is a fan of film and/or book noir, and likes a good read, and isn't turned off by some pretty graphic descriptions of mutilation and bizarre practices should like this.
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