WHITE JAZZ

Cynical and crooked enough to survive, LAPD Detective Dave Klein (“42 and going on dead”) knows he’s being set up. The cops want him to hush up a burglary; the district attorney wants him to lean on a leftist politician; the Mob wants him to get rid of a federal witness—even Howard Hughes has a dirty job for him. James Ellroy’s masterful noir novel, published in 1992, is the concluding installment in his L.A. Quartet (THE BLACK DAHLIA, 1987; THE BIG NOWHERE, 1988; L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, 1990). Scott Brick delivers every savage beating, every brutal murder, every twisted sexual encounter with neon precision. Handling Ellroy’s syncopated rhythms with a virtuoso’s agility, Brick transports listeners to 1950s Los Angeles and a nightmare of human decadence. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]