Kick-ass writing as Ellroy looks back and into the real and imagined LA: My mental machinations had tipped L.A. off the axis of planet Earth. My adolescent arrogance was remorseless. I sensed social trends and confronted them preposterously. Mexican hordes moving west? White man Ellroy halts the flow at 1st and Normandie. Negro hordes moving north? Ellroy toasts them with a flamethrower. The JFK snuff? Conspiracy for sure, and surely hatched in L.A. Kid-sleuth Ellroy nails a Commie cabal in the Hollywood Hills. (LA Times)