The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo's Reviews > American Tabloid

I have to start this review with what a ride!

L.A. Confidential is one of my favorite movie dramas, but when I tried to read the L.A. Quartet, the writing was too choppy to read and I gave up quickly. This time I went into the Underworld U.S.A. trilogy on audiobook, and it was the best decision. Not only was the narrator perfect for the job, but I got the terrifically mean story without being tripped up by three-word sentences and single-page chapters.

American Tabloid is an outstanding piece of work. Ellroy weaves three fictitious, corruptible main characters into the factual whole cloth of major American historical players and events, serving us up a plausible story of how they could've all tied together.

Set between 1958-1963, the book combines John F. and Robert Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, Fidel Castro, Jimmy Hoffa, Howard Hughes and every mob boss at the time. MCs Kemper Boyd and Ward Littell are former FBI partners, now individually drawn into covert operations. Hoover taps Boyd to get close to the Kennedys and inform on them, while Littell is sent to investigate Hoffa and the mafia. A third man, Pete Bondurant, is a former LA cop now working with Boyd. Throughout the novel, these three work together and at odds, knowingly and unknowingly, for both their bosses and their bosses' enemies. Each has his own moral code and agenda, which makes the novel crazy complex and intriguing. Twists on top of betrayals followed by backstabbings.

Literally.

I personally loved the dark, gritty, seedy tone of the novel and I 100% think the language used was appropriate for the time. *However,* readers of a sensitive nature should give this book (and author) a hard pass. Now that I know how well Ellroy's novels translate to audiobooks, I will be giving all his novels a listen eventually. I loved this book!